A Game of Shogi between the Gods
by Amidamaru88
Summary: We are nothing but playthings to the gods, but with perseverance, luck and time even gods may die. I got the idea for this fic after reading Destiny is a Hazy thing by Calanor.
1. Chapter 1 : Rig Veda 10:129

**I got the idea for this fic after reading Destiny is a Hazy thing by Calanor, check it out it's much better then mine, I wanted to do something similar to it and along the way a lot of things changed with what will happen, it still has some things in common with it so don't be to surprised by them.**

**I do not own Naruto, ****If I did ****he would have met Erza. **

Talk now – normal talk  
_What now_ – normal thoughts  
**Speak – biju, higher being talk**  
_**Listen**_** – biju, higher being thoughts**

**Chapter 1 :** **Rig Veda 10:129**

A female figure wrapped in darkness with red pupil eyes looked at the sight before her, a projection of the world lay before her, with a few white dots littered around the world in different places. The woman smiled as she approached the projection, the darkness shrouded her face only showing her red eyes that studied the projection intensely, before she spoke in a suave voice.

"The world what a wonderful place, mortals, ascended beings, gods and even those pitiful so called greater creatures all have their own plans for what is to come, but the future is not set in stone my dear foolish little friends, and as it often occurs something happens and plans go awry. Life cannot be controlled, the world will not bend to your machinations, the world can change, the world will change", her tone became firm "and your plans will go awry".

Her arms emerged from the darkness towards the projection and red lighting bolts flew from her palms towards it, the image slowly rippled at first before violently rippling and then settling back to normal.

"It is done, chaos shall return to the world, and now" she smiled, "to see how things progress, and to see who shall become my pawns for the game that is to unfold."

* * *

**Years later**

A small table with two chairs near it and a shogi board upon it could be seen with a small white globe of light above as it shed light upon the darkness that surrounded it, as far as the eye could see the darkness seemed to spread with no end in sight. Out of the pitch darkness a figure slowly emerged as the darkness received her features became visible. The figure was a woman with long, flowing, wavy scarlet hair that reached to her lower back, she had red pupils and was wearing an elegant dark red kimono tied with a black sash around her waist.

She neared the table with the shogi board on it, _that old fool has been a useful pawn, and he has made good use of those eyes I gave him, but now the time has come for the last player of this game to awaken and join us. _The woman raised one of her hands above the board and from it a red energy emerged and was quickly absorbed by the board and its pieces, as soon as this occured she withdrew her hand from the board.

_For what it is worth I am sorry for the pain that is to come, but he must awaken, the others are making their moves and the time grows ever shorter, even those two stir in their tombs_. The shogi board flashed red for a moment. _It is done and now the last player shall join the game. I hope you can build your forces fast enough as you will need them._

* * *

**Konoha, November, 4 years after the Kyuubi attack**

Izaemon Tōdō looked at the drink in his hand and scowled, a good deal of the bar patrons had gone home by now, the atmosphere in the bar was still the same, the smell of sake and cigars permeated the air. He drank a bit more from his drink before he placed it on the table and he retrieved a cigar from one of the pockets of his jacket and lit it, quickly inhaling hoping that it would calm him down even for just a moment.

He rubbed his forehead with his free hand and thought about what had brought him to he bar today so early, his thoughts had taken a darker turn as of late, he had better control over his thoughts normally and would just bury them deep down in a dark whole, but something just seemed to keep digging them back up and throwing them in his face.

They now drifted to the Kyuubi jinjuriki, _why is it still alive? even after all it's cost us it isn't dead. Heck who believes all the bullshit about kunais and scrolls, oh there are a few of those guys who claim that it's the same thing, but the Kyuubi is a huge demon, that isn't a mindless kunai, it's mind alone is probably bigger then a fucking house, it's head sure as damn was, how could a kid ever stand up to it?_ _Rumors about how the other hosts were taken over by their monsters are all over the place, and if those things are weaker than the Kyuubi then who knows what the Kyuubi has already done and we just don't know it._ He quickly took another sip of his drink and brought his cigaret back to his lips, he scratched his head, for some reason it felt like he had an itch of sorts that wouldn't leave him alone.

_What if this is how the kid felt when the Kyuubi began to work him over, it probably already has the kid trapped in his own body, and the Kyuubi is using him like a damn Suna puppet, I just know it, I bet I would do everyone a favor if I got rid of it,_ his eyes widened, yes, _I would avenge everyone and end the kid's torment._ A small smile broke out across his face, slowly the itch seemed to be disappearing. _Yes the kid's parents are probably waiting for him on the other side hoping that someone like me would free their son and help to reunite them, they would thank me when we meet up on the other side. If I die then at least I could meet everybody on the other side with a smile on my lips knowing that they would welcome me with open arms and smiles on their faces because of what I did._

Izaemon poured himself another drink and took a sip of it as he finished his cigar and placed it in the ash tray on his table near one of the empty sake bottles. He remembered the night the Kyuubi attacked, he and his friends all lived in a building complex and he had left his home to buy groceries and some sweets his girlfriend Momo had wanted, _my sweet petite little Momo, with her brown eyes and black hair pulled into a bun held in a tied cloth._ When he had left their apartment, she was in her pajamas, a plain kimono, with her hair tied in a loose ponytail and drawing a painting for one of their friends as a present.

Everything fell apart that night, his beloved Momo had a sprained ankle and could barely move, so she was put on medical leave until it healed and she had decided to focus on her painting, his childhood friend Kira and his wife Mai had just returned home with their first child, little Toki, she had her father's blond hair and her mother's onxy colored eyes, everything seemed to be going so right with his life, he had a lover, good friends, his career was looking up, he had made some connections that he could call in later when he needed it.

And then it all went to shit and his beloved Momo and his friends were all gone, the Kyuubi appeared right in the district where he lived and it was there that the creature did the most damage, entire buildings leveled, the fires that started burning that night were only extinguished in the morning. His beloved Momo died, Mia and little Toki as well, his friend Kira had fallen into a coma because of his injuries and he was the one to give him the news about the loss of his wife and child when he had woken up. His childhood friend never recovered, the man fell into a depression and two years later he took his own life.

Izaemon took another sip of his drink as he gritted his teeth, at least his head seemed clearer now, he took another sip for his friends. Most of his friends died that night, the few that lived weren't in the village that night, but had lost loved ones as well, they had asked for justice for the death the Kyuubi jinjuriki but they were denied.

_Why can't people understand that Konoha doesn't need the fucking thing, we've never needed a jinjuriki and we've never had one either, we stand as the strongest amongst the five great nations without any demons on our side unlike those other pieces of trash, Konoha stands above such lowly pathetic things. Yes I'l do it! _

He slammed his drinking glass down on the table causing several empty bottles to fall off the table and he got up and exited the bar, as he began to make his way to the orphanage, he saw the small cracks on the buildings around, he wondered briefly why he never paid them any attention before now, but then he shook his head, he had a mission to accomplish and a threat to end. Izaemon felt the cold evening wind brush against him and the dust on the road seemed to be blown towards him by the wind. He looked up and noticed how dark clouds filled the sky. _A storms coming eh? perfect it can help cover my tracks better this way_.

* * *

A small blue eyed little boy sat alone in his room, or at least that's what it was called, it was in fact an old closet that had been emptied out and he had been told to sleep there, the air was dank, at the pain on the walls was chipped, small nails and bolts could still be found from where they held shelves not long ago. A few torn and dirty blankets was what he had to sleep on and to cover himself with, he used a small pillow to rest his head, his teary eyes locked on the corner where what little clothes he had lay. He and the other orphans had returned from the park not long ago were the caretakers of the orphanage had left him alone again, he had played with sticks and stones as no one wanted to play with him or share their toys with him. He tightened his hold on his pillow, the caretakers never let him play with the other children they wouldn't let him sleep in the same room as the other children either. _Why, why do they hate me? I wish the old man with the funny hat would come by more often. _

He had seen how the others were treated, he had seen how the children with parents seemed to be so happy, how the other children had friends and yet he was always denied that. The caretakers always gave him what was left of the food, they didn't let him play with the toys they had around the orphanage and had told the other children not to play with him, they did what they could to keep him away from the others, even the slightest bump against someone, even if the other person was responsible would cause him to be thrown and locked into his room as punishment.

The only people that were kind to him were Tai and his little sister but they had gotten adopted not long ago after arriving at the orphanage, and even then the others picked on him for speaking to him, he wished he could have gone with Tai and his little sister, Kari had always smiled when he made funny faces. He had looked for them around the playgrounds and on the streets, but never found them again, at least he managed to meet someone nice, a bun haired girl dressed in some red cloths, he had only meet her a few times after that, times that where more precious to him than anything. The girl never said where she lived or why her own clothes seemed to get dirtier and dirtier when they meet again, but he saw how her eyes changed over time, they started to resemble his own.

Naruto closed his eyes and hoped that he could dream of a better world, perhaps he would meet her again tomorrow, as he wrapped his torn blanket around himself, he heard the door to his room open, he hoped the caretakers didn't want punish him for something else, however to his shock he quickly found a hand pressed against his mouth as he himself was brutally lifted of his bed. As he found himself leaving the orphanage he noticed no one seemed to come out to help him, he tried to free himself but however was holding him was too strong, things become a blur as he seemed to move faster and faster, he could only hope that whatever happened would end quickly.

* * *

Sixteen year old Anko Mitarashi sighed as she ran alongside her team, the wind had picked up and storm clouds had rolled in, it looked like it would start raining any moment, at least they only had a few more checkpoints on their patrol route around the Forest of Death, something that irked her, the patrols weren't as serious as before and parts of the wall surrounding the forest had fallen into disrepair. She slowed down a bit to match her teammates speed, one of her teammates, Shin Inaho, the son of an important merchant in Konoha had bragged about his great speed and skill and how patrol duty inside the village seemed beneath them, or at least him, now though he was trailing behind.

She sighed once more, it had been three years since her former sensei's betrayal and her return to the village, time that she liked to think she had proven her loyalty to the village, sadly that wasn't the case for some people who still thought she could be a double agent, planted by the traitor.

When she had been thirteen years old her former sensei had turned traitor and left the village but not before taking her and another nine people on a training trip, that ended with him marking them all with a new seal he had created, she was the only one to survive out of the group. She didn't know how long she had been held in a base to be studied or how long it took her until she later managed to break out of that place and return to Konoha, the rest of that year she spent under observation in Konoha, having her mind read by Yamanaka's and going threw interrogations to make sure she was loyal. _Ah hell the Yamanaka probably know the inside of my head better than I do by now, heck they wouldn't let me back on active duty if they thought I would be a spy. _

Anko had done a string of missions to help redeem her image and save her career, the special jounin rank she was going to receive had taken a monumental effort on her part that culminated with her doing an S class mission, she shuddered to think what it would take to advance further, and yet Shin had graduated later then her and advanced faster thanks to his connections, she beat him on the number of mission done and on skills.

The Hokage had believed that she was innocent and had aided her, but a few times it just seemed like he was stringing her along. Her stealth and infiltration skills were her best skills and even amongst the best in the village, she wasn't sure she would ever get to teach her skills to an apprentice or a team, something that she wanted. No matter what people said about Orochimaru the man had been a good teacher, though he had perverted the relationship between teacher and student using it for his own goals. She had seen the traitor as a father figure and a role model in many ways, her own parents died when she was young and she had no other living relatives.

After her experience with the traitor she knew now what a teacher should be and what one should do, for her a teacher did more then just teach a particular subject, a teacher needed to guide students to ask the proper questions and not be so concerned with the one right answer. A teacher need to be able to differentiate instruction, provide quality lessons, and allow for students choice in matters of research and assessment. A teacher needed to be able to handle challenging students and to challenge students all at the same time. Being a teacher was so much more involving than just the physical act of teaching. Being a teacher meant being involved as a learner, it meant being a life-long learner and a curious soul. A teacher needed to serve as a role model for the students and if a teacher did not continually learned and adapted then they couldn't expect their students to just acquire those skills. It was a sacred bond that was to be cherished, for some of the students the teacher could become an important figure in their life, like Orochimaru had become a father figure. She wanted to make sure that kind of relationship wasn't stained like hers had been.

As Anko moved forward she heard a small noise right before the sound of thunder filled her ears.

"Did you hear that noise before the thunder?" Daisuke Ono asked, the third member of her team and fellow chunin.

"It was just the wind, don't worry about it let's just finish this damn boring patrol already, the weather's going bad and I don't want to get stuck in the rain." Shin told them in an annoyed tone of voice.

Anko gritted her teeth_, this guy wouldn't had survived Orochimaru's training, heck even the training when the war curriculum was still used at the academy._ "I heard it as well, it sounded like someone was shouting."

Daisuke nodded his head, "I think it's up ahead, well find out soon enough."

"Oh come on it's just the bloody wind." Shin commented in a now exasperated tone of voice.

As they neared their check point the a man's voice could be heard and became more and more clear, after a few more steps the reached their check point, one of the gates to the Forest of Death, and saw that it was wide open from the outside. Each team member pulled out a kunai and headed towards the gate to enter the forest, Anko cast a glance towards the gate, the lock was rusty and on the ground, _damn it. _

Once the team entered the forest they noticed a blond haired man holding a kunai in his right hand with his back towards them that looked to be breathing heavily and a small child on the ground in front of the man, the child looked beaten and bloodied.

The man turned towards them and they could see the insane look he had in his eyes and a grim smile on his face.

"I'm going to kill it once and for all, his parents will thank me, they can be together and the others will be able to rest peacefully. He began scratching his head with his left arm. And their voices will finally stop then. Will you help me?" He asked letting go of his head.

_Well crap, he's out of his mind_. Anko looked at Daisuke who slowly nodded and shifted his position, when she looked at Shin, she noticed his shocked expression. _Damn it, now's not the time to freeze, we have a kid to rescue. _

"That's that's …." Shin stammered.

"What is it?" Anko hissed.

"That's the Kyuubi brat he's got there." Both Anko's and Daisuke's eyes widened and looked over at the child on the ground, a mop of spiky sun kissed blond hair could still be seen even with the dirt and blood, the situation had just gone from bad to a level far beyond worst.

Shin took a step back with a frightened look on his face. "We need to run away, the Kyuubi will kill us all."

Anko tightened her grip on her kunai, as she looked at the situation, she had only heard stories about jinjurikis, and one going on a rampage was not something she wanted to see, the child didn't seem to be awake or using the Kyuubi's chakra, the situation could still be salvaged, all they needed to do was take down the man in front of them.

"Shin get back in formation" Anko told him.

"No to hell with this I want to live damn it." Shin yelled before he ran away.

Anko and Daisuke's shared a look before Anko's free hand went near her pouch and Daisuke took a small step forward, Daisuke would distract the man and Anko would attack from afar to take the man down, if that failed she would get close to strike at an opening the man had.

"Oh I guess it'll be just me after all, that's alright" the man told them before he quickly turned around and brought the kunai down on the child's stomach and gutted him.

Both Anko and Daisuke threw their kunai's at the man, Anko's hit the man in his right arm while Daisuke's hit the man in his left shoulder, the man's head was ducked low making a quick kill out of the question. They both began to run towards the man to tackle him and provide first aid while they still had time.

"I did it, he's finally dead, you can rest now Momo!" The man yelled. Anko and Daisuke could all but touch the man before a chakra burst occurred and threw them all back. The worst had happened, the child had tapped into Kyuubi's chakra at some level.

Anko was on the ground and she opened her eyes again, she could see Daisuke a few feet away coming around as well, her gaze shifted forward where she saw the child wrapped in a blood red chakra shroud that now started resembled a fox with two tails, his stomach wound seemed to be healing quickly. She could feel something wrong about that chakra, it seemed to be malevolent, though she noticed something strange about him. _His eyes are closed._

The blond man managed to get up and grabbed a bloody kunai, the one Daisuke had attacked him with, she realized, it had been dislodged when the man was thrown back, he was staring at the child.

"I knew it, you're using him as your puppet Kyuubi! I won't be denied." He yelled as he charged again. Only for the one of the chakra tails to rush forward and stop his attack and the other one to grab hold of the man's torso and slamming the man onto the ground a few feet behind him. The chakra fox's head turned upwards and opened it's mouth, what followed was beyond strange as it seemed to eat the air itself as then it stopped moving and the chakra began to slowly disappear. _That can't be, did he stop it somehow?_ As the chakra disappeared the boy fell down onto the ground.

The only thing Naruto would remember of that night would that of a woman with long purple hair and with two swords sheaths on her back, wielding two swords standing with her back towards him.

* * *

**Inside the seal during the altercation**

The Kyuubi stirred in the seal, as he sensed what was occurring outside with his jailer, it could now see an opportunity to escape with the destruction of his jailor's mind freedom seemed to be close at hand, he only had to wait for another moment before the opportunity presented itself and he jumped to seize it.

What the Kyuubi did not expect was what happened next, as the his jailor drew more on his chakra and his senses expanded more, he could feel something familiar in the air around him, something that he had not felt in ages, something that all but begged him to taste it. He was so enthralled by this, that he didn't even kill the human scum that threw itself at him. The Kyuubi used his host and began to take in the energy around him, it seemed so familiar to him, how could he have forgotten about it has beyond him.

As the first drops of the energy reached him his large eyes widened_, this is…., what is this? mana, magica, reiatsu? How do I know of these things?,_ he noticed the inside of his prison began to change its shape, large colored crystals appeared on the walls of the prison, his jail cell seemed to be transformed into a crystal cavern, with each crystal giving off a different color.

He closed his eyes, as he absorbed more and more of the energy, memories began to assault his mind, it felt as if they had been long since buried but now they were rising to the surface with great speed, he screamed as they continued to assault his mind, memories upon memories rushed him. The Kyuubi opened his eyes as pain filled his senses and saw a glowing white crack of sorts appear on his left paw, as he looked at it he realized that it was spreading, more and more it grew and more and more appeared on his large body, on his tails, on his paws, on his snout.

The Kyuubi roared in pain as the cracks enveloped his body and began to glow brighter and brighter until the he seemed as bright as the sun, and then everything stopped, for a brief moment the Kyuubi thought that perhaps he could recover, and in the next moment he exploded and small bits of red chakra scattered threw out the cell stopping in mid air and then quickly it began to gather once more into a single spot until it took the shape of a young man where the Kyuubi once stood.

The man wore black pants and a black shirt, he had pale skin, a round shaped face, earth brown eyes, and very short brown hair, as the man blinked and looked at his surroundings he felt a pain in his back and fell to the ground trying to grab onto the floor as the pain swept threw his body, it felt as is he was on fire and his bones were breaking. Once the pain passed he looked behind him and saw a young looking woman with pale skin, a heart shaped face, long scarlet hair, and chocolate brown eyes, she was wearing a grey kimono with the lower side blue, the outline yellow and a red scar like symbol on the left side of her generous chest.

"Who are you?" The man asked.

"You already know that, I am part of you" she gave him a warm smile as she knelt down placed her right hand on his face,"your first true act after your return and you created me, it was for the same reason you cherished Bianca's company, even with all her faults" she said in a disdained tone of voice, "you wanted companionship to help end the eternal loneliness. Now if you are done asking questions whose answers you already know I believe we have work to do", she said looking towards the bars of their cage.

The man grunted and nodded, "Ah you're right," he said scratching the back of his head. _I kind of knew she wouldn't like Bianca._

"Of course I am" she told him in tone that made it seem like the most natural thing in the world.

"What should I call you?"

The woman placed one of her hands at her chin, "Sayaka, that name is acceptable, we treasured that name at one time."

"Sayaka it is then." The man got up and slowly approached the bars of the seal, Sayaka following at his side, before they stopped and their eyes took yellow glow as they scanned the darkness in front of them before they returned to normal. "The kid's mind has been threw hell and his body isn't far behind, I'm going to need to focus on rebuilding quite a few parts and repair others as well, most of all though I'm going to do something about that seal that's affecting his mind."

"So you will create a false front"

"Yes, I figure if anyone comes looking they should find what they expect, we will work on the real thing."

Sayaka nodded her head. "Do you have any idea about why he's core has such a dark tainted feeling to it?"

"No, not truly, it is something to investigate, as are these," he told her stepping between the bars and out of the seal as he pointed to strange symbols that adorned the upper half of the seal, and were all but invisible.

Sayaka looked at them with a curious expression, "strange, a seal of the Shinigami should not have runes upon it, what did actually happen during the sealing? the memories of that night are fractured after a point."

The man shook his head and crossed his arms, "that's something else to investigate, it appears things went more south during the sealing than we originally thought. But for now we need to begin the healing processes on the child's mind, and the first step will be to stop him from using my old form's chakra now that his physical wounds are healed."

"If your going to add the basics to the child's mind will you use our faces? your parents faces are not clear enough."

The man smiled, "Yeah, I'm sure she made a great mom, and we already have my memories to use as a template."They both raised their hands and were soon enveloped in a golden flame.

"I'll search for a path to freedom once we're done here."

The man nodded, "right and I'll begin creation of the new realm."

"Eventually though", Sayaka began, "we're going to have to investigate your awakening in more depth, simply remembering the truth after absorbing the magical energies found in the forest seems a bit too convenient."

"It could still be a coincidence, a lucky chain of events, the wounds the child received, his young age and the magical energies found in this part of the forest seem rather strong, perhaps something from the past era left it's mark here that awoke a distant memory. I'm more concerned about my defeat and transformation into the Juubi." He smilled, "at the end it looked like a simple human defeated me."

"Do you see him as what could have been if you had taken a different path to gain power?"

"Perhaps, though I'm unsure if even his strength would have been enough to fight against The Legion, it's still an interesting alternative to consider, a path I may have walked."

The two stopped speaking as they began to focus more on their tasks.

* * *

Two men stood near a bed that had a small child upon hooked to several medical devices, one of the men had his eyes closed and arms raised towards the child with his hands in a square shape.

The first of the two men was a light-skinned old man of below-average stature with short spiked grey hair and had a long and thick goatee, he had pronounced cheekbones, a prominent crease across his forehead, a few wrinkles, a wart near his left nostril, a few liver-spots on his face and he also had several lines running vertically under the outer corners of each eyes that reached his cheeks.

The second man had blond hair reaching his shoulders, which he wore spiky on top and let it flow freely on his back, he had green pupil less eyes and strong facial features, which included a well defined jaw line, he wore the standard shinobi flak jacket over a grey outfit, complete with hand-guards and forehead protector. The second man opened his eyes and lowered his hands once more.

"Well, what did you discover?"The first man asked.

"A myriad of things Hokage-sama," the old man made a get on with it motion, "the bad news is that his mind has shut down in many ways, but the good news is that it is slowly restoring itself, I've helped the processes along as best as I could. His mind seems to be repressing the memory of what happened that night. It will take a while for his mind to recover and he will not awaken from this state until then, his mind is to broken to attempt anything major, I recommend a few more session so I can monitor the processes."

The old kage nodded. "Hmm, good, and the other thing?"

"I couldn't find his connection to the Kyuubi, if it exits it could be hidden or closed off after the traumatic event, but considering the state his mind is in perhaps I simply could not find it as it is in some part I couldn't accesses yet. Once his mind is in better shape I can search for it once more, I can do so during our other sessions if you desire Hokage-sama."

"Hmm, yes that would for the best, very well thank you."

"If I may Hokage-sama"

"Yes, what is it?"

"I would recommend removing Uzumaki from the orphanage the few memories of that place that I have found are not particularly good"

"Oh? What did they contain to make you suggest such a thing, children rough housing each other is normal"

"It appeared that he was treated quite harshly there Hokage-sama, one vivid memory was one morning when someone bumped into him and the caretakers of the orphanage took him and locked him into his room for the day, he was denied food and not allowed to go to the bathroom that day, as punishment for his actions. The other few memories had him not being allowed to play with the toys they had at the orphanage, given only the scraps that remained when they ate. It all looked quite bleak, his room was beyond deplorable, it all reminded me of the prisoner camps during the war, his only real happy memory was when you came to visit him Hokage-sama"

The old kage sighed and nodded, a thoughtful look on his face, "I see, thank you Taigo you may go now" Taigo nodded and left the room.

The third Hokage turned towards the child's bed once more. "Boar", he spoke in an authoritarian tone of voice. Behind him a figure jumped out of the shadows and took a kneeling position behind him. "What have you discovered in the investigation?"

"The man who attacked Uzumaki was named Izaemon Tōdō, chunin rank, part of the regular forces, we confirmed that he had been drinking heavily earlier at the Rusty Kunai"

"The few people that saw him afterwards mentioned how he seemed inebriated, we confirmed that he was heading towards the general direction of the orphanage. After interrogating the caretakers of the orphanage, we learned that they did not attempt to stop the man when they saw him or report the fact that he had taken Uzumaki, hoping in their own words to get rid of the demon once and for all. Not all the caretakers were aware of the situation and there are those who weren't working the day of the incident"

"And Naruto's Anbu guard?"

"He had taken an extended break, once he returned to his post, he didn't check if Uzumaki was in his room, he simply stood guard outside the room, which is where we found him."

"I see" continue.

"After taking young Uzumaki, Izaemon proceeded to the Forest of Death where he began to torture him. A patrol team around the forest consisting of chunins Mitarashi Anko, Ono Daisuke and Inaho Shin, discovered the two as Izaemon had entered the forest threw a gate that was on the team's patrol route. The team mentioned how Izaemon looked unhinged, and rambled, once Uzumaki's identity became clear Inoha Shin fled, leaving his teammates behind. The two remaining chunins made a plan to subdue Izaemon, however before it could be acted upon, Izaemon stabbed Uzumaki in the stomach and gutted him, the two then attacked Izaemon and the wounds on his body suggest they managed to injure him with kunais. However they were all thrown back when Uzumaki tapped into the Kyuubi's chakra and the chakra created a two tailed fox like construct around his body. It slammed Izaemon into the ground using one of the tails when Izaemon attempted to attack Uzumaki again. We are uncertain of the validity of the next part as it does not make much sense. It appears that Uzumaki in his transformed state quoting chunin Mitarashi simply began to eat the air itself and then he stopped moving and the Kyuubi's chakra around him began to slowly disappear."

"Strange, and what did Ono say about this act?"

"From his point of view the fox construct simply stared at the sky with its mouth open and then faded away"

"Proceed"

"After the chakra construct faded away Uzumaki collapsed on the ground. It was at this point that Izaemon attempted to attack him once more but was stopped by the Anbu Cat"

"What was Cat doing there?"

"She and her team were training, going threw an old training regiment that new recruits used to run, one of her teammates was a sensor who picked up on the chakra burst and alerted them to it. One of the team members returned to alert us of the situation while the others went to investigate"

"Izaemon died from his wounds, the medical report cites blood loss from the injuries inflicted on him by Mitarashi, Ono and Cat and internal organ damage from being slammed into the ground by Uzumaki. The cause of death was brain damage resulted from Uzumaki's attack, the Anbu present there provided first aid to keep him alive, but didn't notice the injury to his brain, he died while being transported to the a holding cell making interrogation impossible"

The old kage had a thoughtful look on his face and remained silent for a few minutes before he spoke. "Very well, though someone needs to remind Naruto-kun's Anbu guard about when he is allowed to take breaks and their duration, see to it"

"Yes Hokage-sama"

* * *

When Naruto awoke he felt strange, he had experienced such wonderful dreams, he remembered feeling the presence of a caring mother and father, some who cuddled him when he was young, who taught him how walk, to speak and write, and actually playing with friends. But now those peoples faces seemed to blur more and more, he couldn't truly remember how the looked like anymore.

As he looked around the room he was in he noticed it was far larger than his room at the orphanage and far nicer, the bed he was on looked very big, it was comfortable, the sheets were clean, his pillows were soft. Two small wooden drawers where near the head of the bed, one on each side, a window was on right side of the room, with the shades drawn closed, a wooden desk with two chairs was a bit farther from the window, near it was a large filed bookshelf and on the left side of the room was a large wooden wardrobe with silver handles and the room's door. He noticed that the walls had pictures of different place, one was of a forest with a river running threw it, one with mountains who's peaks were covered in snow, another one looked like a garden filled with flowers. _Where am I?_ A small knock on the door brought his attention to it.

"Yes?"

The woman that entered wore dark blue kimono with a red sash around her waist, she had long scarlet hair that covered her right eye, pale skin, a heart shaped face and chocolate brown eyes, she seemed familiar to him for some reason he couldn't exactly place.

"Ah you're finally awake Naruto-kun". She spoke in warm tone of voice, and then took a chair from near the desk and brought it next to the bed and sat down.

"Where am I mam?"

"In my home, more specifically your room, if you desire it" She told him in a warm caring voice.

Naruto's eyes bulged at that, _this place is my room!? Did someone she adopt me?_ "Ano what do you mean mam? Did you adopt me?!" He asked in a hopeful tone of voice, with an underline tone of uncertainty.

"That is a bit of a long story Naruto-kun, to start off with, my name is Sayaka and my other half's name is Yukimura, we've nursed you back to health after you were injured. Now Naruto-kun I need to ask you a question allright?" Naruto nodded. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Naruto rubbed his head with both hands. "I was dreaming, they were some really great dreams"

"And before that?"

"I think I was at the orphanage but I'm not sure, I think there someone with two sharp thingys with their back towards me, but it's all a blur"

The woman raised an eyebrow at that, "I think you mean swords Naruto-kun"

"Is that what they're called?"

"Yes. Do you remember how that person got in front of you?"

"No mam"

The woman sighed. "Unfortunately you were injured not long ago Naruto-kun and myself and my other half nursed you back to health"

"Thank you mam"

"It's quite alright Naruto-kun", the woman looked towards the door, "Now I do believe that you can enter as well." After she said those words a man entered the room, he had pale skin, a round shaped face, earth brown eyes, and very short brown hair, he was wearing a dark blue shirt, black pants, and was barefoot.

"Hello there Naruto, as my dear Sayaka-chan told you my name is Yukimura"

"Hello sir"

"How you got here and who I truly am, is tied to you in many ways, the man told him as he slowly neared the foot of the bed, tell me what do you know about the Kyuubi, Naruto?"

"Um I know the Yondaime defeated it, I know there's a festival with fun stuff but I'm not allowed to go, I only hear about it"

The man had an annoyed expression on his face, "Well defeat is the right word all right, the Yondaime did defeat the Kyuubi but he didn't kill it he did something else to it entirely"

Naruto asked as he tilted his head. "What did he do?"

"Tell me Naruto have you ever wondered why people treat you so differently? Why they look at you with such cold eyes for no reason?"

A flash of pain crossed Naruto's face. "Yes" he told them in a teary tone of voice. To Naruto's surprise Sayaka moved next to him on the bed and hugged him, it felt so strange to him, he couldn't remember someone doing something similar, and yet felt nice, the woman gently placed him on her lap and continued to hug him.

Yukimura let out an exasperated sigh. "The Yondaime couldn't truly kill the Kyuubi so he locked it away into someone, and that person would become the Kyuubi's jailor"

"What?"Naruto asked, shock clear on his face. "But why couldn't the Yondaime destroy the Kyuubi?"

"Naruto do you know what a biju is?"

"No sir"

"It is a being of pure chakra, even if its body is destroyed in time it will reform and return, if there are ways to kill one humans haven't found it, and the Kyuubi was such a being. The Yondaime had a few choices to make during the battle with the Kyuubi, in the end he decided to lock the Kyuubi away in someone, can you guess who that was?"

"Me?" Sayaka hugged him tighter.

"Yes". Yukimura told him in a somber tone.

"So, everything has been his fault? all the glares? The people being mean to me? All because of him?"

"Naruto the Yondaime did what he thought was right, whether it was the right choice or not is highly debatable all things considered. And that brings me to who I am and why I'm here now. You see Naruto while the Kyuubi's chakra is still inside of you, the Kyuubi as the people knew it is no more."

"What happened to it?" Naruto asked in a confused tone of voice.

"He has reclaimed his divinity". This time it was Sayaka who answered him

"What?"

"He has become a god once more" Sayaka answered.

"The Kyuubi's a god?!" Naruto yelled.

"He was a god before he became the Kyuubi, just like he was human before that, and now he simply remembered what he once was." Sayaka told him in calm and firm tone of voice.

"How do you know that?" Naruto asked.

"Because I was the Kyuubi not long ago." Yukimura answered him.

"What?! You're the Kyuubi?!"

"I was the Kyuubi, not anymore though"

"But you look so human, you don't look like anything special." Naruto as soon as he spoke this Naruto heard Sayaka snicker behind him.

Yukimura dropped his head down and spoke in a depressed tone of voice. "Well, this is how I looked when I was human and I looked just like this when I started on my path to godhood"

"Wait, you were human?"

"Yes at one point I was human like you are, but things went down hill and I became something else entirely, eventually I ended up becoming a god, though it was not a pleasant process"

"If he was the Kyuubi, then what are you?" Naruto asked looking at Sayaka.

"I am a part of him." Naruto gave her a confused look."He created me at an unconscious level using his own power after reclaiming his godhood, using his power and memories of someone he cared about he made me in her image."

"Can you just make people?he asked looking at Yukimura and then at Sayaka. "Are you really alive?"

"It's complicated", Yukimura answered, "to explain everything about the creation of life would take too long, but she is alive from a certain point of view."

"Point of view?"

"How a person see's things"

"We are getting off track again, we should return to more important matters." Sayaka stressed.

"Right", Yukimura gave her a nod, "Naruto right now a part of me is still tied to you because of the Yondaime, I personally want my freedom and to be whole once more and doing so requires that part that you have inside of you. To get it back I only have a few options. The first would be to force my way out of the seal, but that destroys the chakra and while I could gather it again in time this option has you dying as well." Naruto tensed at that. "Don't worry I'm not going to do it." Yukimura told him waving his hand.

"Why not?"

"Because you two are alike." Sayaka told him. "You have something in common with Yukimura and even the woman in whose image I am made, you were all orphans and went threw great pain, you know the pain of loneliness quite well Naruto-kun" She told him as she hugged him tighter.

"The pain of being alone is completely out of this world, isn't it?" Yukimura asked Naruto. "You see I eventually found people that helped me, I found someone to teach me, I found a family" Yukimura smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "It's why I will not hurt you Naruto"

"That and the fact that I would kick his ass if he tried." Sayaka pipped in.

Yukimura sighed and lowered his head. "You ruined a rather emotional moment Sayaka-chan and an emotional bonding moment as well."

"And yet it is the truth and it still stands true."

"Huh I really made you in her image didn't I?"

"Yes, I have the potential to whip you in many ways."

Naruto couldn't help it he let out a small chuckle, before he placed both his hands over his mouth and a panicked look mired his face.

"Oh it looks's like someone finds our little talk amusing," Sayaka said as she kissed the top of Naruto's head. "You should see what the original would do to him, if you think I'm bad she'd leave you gob smacked."

"It's alright to laugh Naruto, don't be afraid." Yukimura then ruffled his hair again. "My second option is to stay with you until we can unlock the seal and I can leave without killing you, time in which myself and Sayaka-chan here would train you in all we could if you accept."

"You would do that?" Naruto asked in a bewildered tone of voice.

"Yes, just like other people did for me I would do so for you. I'm not going to lie to you Naruto, your life will most likely be filled with hardships. Being marked with that seal means that you will have to become a shinobi whether you like it or not. It makes's a weapon out of you for the village even more than the regular shinobi. The shinobi world itself is full of lies and manipulation and your life will be no exception, you will need to be able to see threw those and turn them around."

"Turn them around?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, sometimes you can turn the tide on your enemies and trap them in their own machinations." Seeing Naruto's confused face, "it means you can use your enemies lies and plans against them" Sayaka answered.

"Can you tell me who my parents are?"

Both Yukimura and Sayake tensed at this and Yukimura answered. "We will discover this and when the time comes tell you."

"Then I want to do it, please train me" Naruto told them in an exuberant tone of voice and both Yukimura and Sayaka smiled.

* * *

Yuji Ueda awoke startled from his restless slumber, the dreams had gotten worse recently, he brought a hand to wipe his forehead and noticed he was covered in sweat once more, he cursed again, he hated the country he was in and the island he was on. He looked around his room, it was a modest room, but adequately lit. The walls were painted in dark rose, broken up by drape like, stark white curtains on the windows; the smell of sweat and mold filled the room. Yuji got out of the bed and went to the bathroom and began to wash, soon he could leave this place behind and return to Kumo, he looked in the bathroom mirror, his face looked more withdrawn, his brown hair looked unwashed and unkempt, he now had a small dark stubble, the hair looked to go every which way, he rubbed his chin and looked at his lower neck, Yuji shook his head, he would shave later.

After he finished washing, Yuji got dressed, black shinobi sandals and a pair of black pants and a grey Kumo flak jacket, leaving one of his shoulders exposed, he tied his Kumo hiate around his neck and placed his pouches with kunai and shuriken around his right and left legs, the last piece, a scroll container, he tied to his waist. Before he left he cast a glance at the room, he had left his blouse in the room, the humidity was too great to wear such a thing, he locked the door and made his way downstairs.

Yuji didn't eat anything even with his stomach grumbling he didn't feel hungry, he blamed the heat and humidity on the island, he crossed the road from the hotel he was staying at to enter the bar across from it. Yuji took a seat at the bar and made a small hand sign, and the bartender, Shougo, a fat man, with long greasy black hair, and a short beard, gave him a large smile, the man's teeth were yellow and a few were missing, he was wearing a white T-shirt with yellow sweat stains, black short pants and yellow slippers.

"Still here my foreign friend." Shougo smiled once more as he placed Yuji's order in front of him.

Yuji grunted and quickly emptied his glass. "Yes, still here." He made another sign for the bartender to fill up the glass again. Yuji had been on the island for a week already, he had taken a simple C – rank mission to deliver a scroll to someone on a small island in Water Country, he thought it would be easy pocket money; sadly a problem arose when he arrived on the island. The person he was to deliver the scroll too had left for the main island of the country, apparently some sort of problem had occurred with a family member of his and he was needed in the country, but he was supposed to return in a week. Yuji had enquired about the man's destination, but the people were uncertain as the man had mentioned that he may be needed to travel to several places. Sadly Yuji couldn't go searching for the man in the country, there were problems in Water Country and Kiri, the last thing he needed was to get the attention of the people there, with things so tense his presence could only make things worse. So he could only wait on the small island for the client to return, he wouldn't give to scroll to anyone else but the client, that had been the mission, deliver the scroll to the client and no one else, and he would do so. He emptied his glass once more and placed it back down, the drinks helped calm him down somewhat.

"Still having trouble sleeping my friend?" Shougo asked.

"Yes, I don't know how you people manage to deal with the humidity here." He told the bartender as he wiped his forehead again.

Shougo shrugged his shoulders, "You get used to it my friend", he let out a breath, "still many people are having trouble sleeping nowadays, it started roughly a year ago, I don't know why. If you want my friend I have a package coming in later, it can help me make a special drink."

"What kind of drink?" Yuji inquired; he needed something to get threw the last two days until the client returned.

"One that helps ensures you have a dreamless sleep my friend." Shougo told him with a wide smile.

"How much?"

"How much is a good night's rest worth my friend?" Shougo made a hand sign for money.

Yuji gritted his teeth. "Fine, you damn shark, when can you have it ready?"

Shougo smiled once more. "Tonight my friend, the package should be here in the afternoon and it'll take a few hours to make, I'd tell you to go buy some sweets or pick up a coconut or two to eat afterwards, the taste is…" he appeared to stumble for words… "exotic, yes exotic!"

"Very well," Yuji placed the money he owed for the drinks on the bar and left, he resolved to explore the island once more to pass the time.

As Yuji walked around the island he couldn't explain why it was so hot, it was still morning, and autumn had already arrived, it shouldn't had been so hot, the humidity only added to the rather oppressive atmosphere, it made everything feel sticky. Yuji didn't know how many hours he walked around the island, it wasn't that big of a place, it most likely only had a few hundred people, he doubted any one of them had ever heard of the shinobi wars or knew of the events of the outside world.

At one point the island had been used as a way station for the voyages to the western continent, the sea leading to the place was rough and storms upon it were frequent, the Elemental Nations had made contact with the other continent but sadly many ships were lost on the voyages between the two continents, far to many for people's taste and so the ships going there slowly dwindled. Though a few ships still left for the place it was often a long journey with its own perils, still ships from the other continent arrived from time to time, they seemed to have persisted and managed to chart some sea routes, the ships would arrive from time to time in The Land of Sea and in the Land of Tea, the sea routes leading to the Land of Water were apparently far to dangerous to use, a part of the sea near The Land of Water had always had it's own problems since ancient times.

As Yuji stopped he didn't know how he had arrived at the beach, but he recognized the place, he had been here days before, he seemed to always end up at this place during his walks for some reason. The ocean here seemed to have a mysterious beauty to it, something you couldn't explain in words and yet felt drawn to it. As Yuji gazed towards the ocean he could swear that for a flicker of a moment that he saw a black spot forming on a part of the ocean as if something was rising from the deep, all the while he could hear a sweet song that was luring him towards the ocean. He shook his head, he should return to the hotel and get something to eat and then just wait for Shougo to get the drink ready. As he began heading back a small noise from behind him drew his attention, he slowly reached for a kunai with his right hand while looking behind him. Yuki spotted a young girl, no older then ten years old, she had long chestnut colored hair, a heart shaped face, and green eyes, she looked skinnier then the other children he had seen on the island, the girl wore a sleeveless tattered beige robe with patches in some places and had a crown of flowers on her head.

"You're here for the celebration mister." The girl stated.

Yuji simply looked at her. "The celebration?" He asked, perhaps it was some local thing; he wouldn't mind something to help pass the time.

The girl smiled, nodded and pointed in the direction she came from, where a path could be seen, the girl gently took his left hand and started leading him down the path.

Yuji hesitated for a moment, _it could be a trap_, but he had seen no shinobi on the island or someone that looked to even remotely posses shinobi training. In the end, he decided to let the girl lead him to where she wanted. The trip was short; the girl appeared to be following the beaten path, in the distance Yuji could see a few people and hear all sorts of noises, he briefly asked himself if those were songs of some kind. When he arrived with the girl at their destination the scene before him was that of forty to fifty people gathered around in circles in several places. Yuji and the girl approached one of the circles, the people around the fire were passing a long pipe from which they puffed something, a person there wore a tattered green cloak and a large blue intricate mask, while around the outer ring of the circle people were singing. Something Yuji noticed was how close to each other the people sat, they all wore the some tattered robes as the girl, to his surprise a few people were sharing the same cloths, the people around the outer ring of the circle swayed from side to side with the rhythm of the songs. He noticed three girls with long chestnut colored hair had their hair tied together in a braid, the girls gently swayed from side to side as they sang their song, their eyes were half lidded, they were so close to each that the lines showing their separate bodies seemed to slowly disappear. The girl squeezed Yuji's hand and quickly pulled him towards the circle around the fire; he followed numbly and failed to realize how he felt more relaxed, how his steps felt lighter and how a cloud seemed to have blocked out any other thoughts.

As Yuji sat down in the circle amongst the men and women there, he noticed the person with the green cloak and the blue intricate mask pass him the pipe, Yuji took the pipe but kept looking at the person's mask, the face looked beautiful to him, it had a rectangle form, full fleshy lips, barely parted as if to whisper something, a secret between the two of them, the mask had six white lines around it's cheeks, two lines from it's forehead down to it's chin, with strange symbols that his brain had troubled understanding. The masked person made a sign for Yuji to smoke from the pipe, he nodded and began to puff from the pipe, inhaling deeply before letting the smoke out, he slowly relaxed even more, Yuji took another puff from the pipe before he passed it to the next person, he could all but feel his muscles taking the substance from the pipe within his body, absorbing it slowly.

Yuji couldn't remember how many times the pipe was passed around the circle, how many times it reached him again and he took another puff from it. Time seemed to pass as night seemed to roll onwards and surround them, the fire in front of Yuji slowly grew more and more intense. As Yuji's head grew heavier he slowly heard the songs once more and realized he could understand a few of them, he shook his head and tried to pay attention to them.

"Flesh to flesh, unity once more, flesh to flesh, the time of our lord's return draws near, flesh to flesh, unity once more, soon we shall be one once more, flesh to flesh, unity once more, soon our god shall rise once more."

Yuji shook his head and looked for the girls singing, to his utter disgust he found them and his stomach turned at the sight of them, the girls bodies seemed warped now, they were united, the lines that separated their bodies had disappeared, their shoulders were conjoined, their heads as well, the new body now only head four eyes, the mouths all spoke as one, perfectly in sync with each other. He looked away from the girls, now a monstrous thing, and towards the ocean, it looked black now, inviting even, suddenly the people began to rise from the ground, he himself did so as well almost unconsciously, his body seemed to move on its own.

They all seem to slowly move towards the ocean, the grotesque body of the girls made its way towards the ocean, he noticed the thing only had four legs and seem to stumble forward trying to balance its monstrous body. He and the rest of the people moved slowly towards the ocean and entered it, the ocean felt so warm and inviting, it was as if he had returned to his childhood home, he felt like someone had placed a blanket around his shoulders and he was back in his room once more safe and sound. Yuji didn't realize when he had submerged under the ocean and began to swim towards a place that called him towards it, the water offered no resistance to him, it felt like the ocean was pushing him forward, attempting to aid him as best it could, lending him what little strength it possessed. As he made his was forward he could see fish passing him by as if fleeing from something, beckoning him to do so as well, he pushed forward, he could see the people that swam with him had renounced their cloths, he hoped that he would not spot the monstrous body of those girls. Soon Yuji could hear a sound in the distance that grew louder and louder as he continued down his road.

BUMP, BUMP, BUMP, BUMP

Yuji pushed forward, the sound echoed within his body, his heart began to beat faster and faster now. Bump, Bump, Bump, BumP

BUMp, BUMp, BUMp, BUMp

The noise was still there, but he didn't mind, it only helped giving him greater speed now.

BUMp, BUMp, BUMp, Bump

As Yuji moved forward he could see the people in front of him lowering themselves toward the ocean floor and looked to have been swallowed by it.

BUMp, BUMp, Bump, Bump

When Yuji reached the place where the other people disappeared, he saw a large chasm and something on the bottom of it, he began to make his way towards it.

BUMP, BUmp, Bump, Bump.

Slowly as Yuji made his way towards the bottom of the chasm and he could make out a black temple, obsidian perhaps he thought, seaweed did not touch the temple walls, peaks of solid matter four feet tall at their apex and two feet thick with flat sides and smooth upper surfaces which met at very obtuse angles arouse from the top of the temple, it had an ancient splendor to it, intricate markings adorned the temple walls, Yuji realized they were the same symbols that adorned the mask of the green robed person from the circle around the fire.

BUMP, Bump, Bump, Bump

As he got closer to it Yuji knew he could get inside of the temple, the walls could do little to stop him.

BUMp, Bump, Bump, Bump

As soon as Yuji got close to the walls of the temple he passed threw them, he could see the cracks in the walls as he passed threw them.

BUmp, Bump, Bump, Bump.

After Yuji passed threw the walls he continued slowly threw the water a bit more and Yuji could see what lay in the temple, it looked like a gigantic mountain of flesh, slowly wreathing, he began to make his way towards it just like the others. The closer he got to the mountain of flesh, Yuji saw walls of flesh that arouse from the mountain and slowly absorbed the other people around the mountain. Yuji could hear a small voice telling him to turn back, but it sounded like a whisper in the dark coming from a distant cavern. He began swimming towards the mountain of flesh and now he could see the faces of people on the mountain, he could see limbs, arms and legs, even patches of hair, the faces turned towards to him, their eyes opened and their lips moved together. Yuji moved towards them his arms out stretched, he wanted to touch the mountain for it to absorb him as well, he could all but see the face within the mountain at it's core, a beautiful blue face with full fleshy lips, the mask of the green robed person failed to do it justice, the mask was a pale imitation of the real thing who's beauty eclipsed everything he had ever seen in his life. Yuji slowly drifted towards the mountain, walls of flesh with eyes and mouths arouse to surround him, a small voice still shouted that he should turn away, he ignored it, why would he ever turn away from such a thing. As he got closer to the mountain he could see a had arise from it, a pale female hand reaching towards him, the faces all looked at him, singing to him, he reached out towards the stretched hand with his own hands, wanting and needing to touch it. The walls of flesh slowly surrounded him, but he didn't care, he was getting closer to the outstretched hand, soon he would be one with the others, _flesh to flesh, soon we shall be one once more._

Bump, Bump, Bump, Bump

Yuji could hear his heart beat and that of his god, it was the same now, and they would be one. He was only a few centimeters away from the hand, from his god, from his home; he could feel the heat coming from the hand, the energy emanating from it. Just a few more inches, he could almost feel the current that would arise from the other body when they touched how his flesh would become one with the others, he would dream the dreams of his god, and he would forever hear the words of his god. Now he was an inch away from the hand, he could feel the energy from his god traveling threw his body, he could feel the processes of joining with his god, he could…. a loud sharp sound seemed to boom in the distance and Yuji felt himself pulling away from his god, he could he see the startled looks of the faces, saddened by his departure.

Yuji jumped out of his bed and hit the floor, he was covered in sweat, he looked around and realized he was back in his room and it appeared to be evening, he heard a rooster again, Yuji felt a great rage within himself and wanted to strangle the rooster for what he had dared to do. He stopped and brought a hand to his head, he didn't know why he felt such a great a rage anymore, he tried to think about it but came up with nothing, he shook his head, _the dreams!,_ they had gotten far worse then before, he remembered some sort of grotesque mountain of flesh that lay under the ocean, his stomach turned, why did he ever dream about such a thing was unknown to him. Yuki arouse and went to the bathroom as he washed he tried to remember how he had gotten back to his room, he had walked around the island and it's beaches, the heat must have gotten to him he concluded, it didn't matter anymore he would finish washing up and then head over to the bar and wait for Shougo to make his special drink, he only needed to last two more days, as soon as his client returned he would leave the island even if it meant swimming all the way back to Kumo.

* * *

Review away

The Ten Commandments of Reviewing - created by FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D, post them if you agree and use them yourself

1) Thou shalt point out the parts you enjoy  
2) Thou shalt point out the parts you disliked, if any.  
3) Thou shalt point out the parts you utterly hated and explain why  
4) Thou shalt write with good grammar!  
5) Thou shalt not give annonymous reviews, for the authors might want to reply to thine criticism!  
6) Thou shalt not flame  
7) Thou shalt write a four sentence paragraph minimum!  
8) Thou shalt use constructive criticism!  
9) Thou shalt review as much as possible, not merely once!  
10) Thou shalt voice thine expectations

Constructive criticism or pointing out a possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

Check out my profile page for polls.

* * *

**AN : **

**I think I did a good job with the first part up until the Kyuubi goes boom, the second part got changed quite a few times, likewise the dialog between the three isn't what I hoped it would be. **

**I scrapped a lot of scenes from this chapter, another five scenes were supposed to be added as well.**

Konoha shinobi had every right to think that they were better that the other nations becomes they didn't know that Konoha had it's own jinjuriki since it's foundation, add the fact that it's never mentioned if Mito and Kushina used Kyuubi's power during their lives or if Kushina used it during the war and I think there's some truth to it.A lot of people died during the Kyuubi's attack, heck search Kyuubi attack on youtube and just look at the damage the bijudama did, how many houses did it destroy? How many people died there? Oh yes some ran for the shelters like during the invasion, but consider this, it was during the night, or late evening, the Kyuubi appeared right in the village, no explosions to act as a warning like during the invasion, just sudden death and destruction. It must have done some damage before the shinobi rallied, add the fact that some people were probably paralyzed with fear and injured and the body count just rises.

So Anko was 10 when she graduated from the academy and made chunin at 12, here she's 16 and Orochimaru betrayed the village 3 years ago.

I got the idea for the braid's part from a picture on 9gag.

I recommend reading a few of H.P. Lovecraft's stories, or getting the audio books to them.

I wanted to describe the girl's new body while underwater but decided to skip it.

* * *

**Small thoughts on Naruto chapter 661**

**Does anyone else think that Kishi is going for the Digimon Season 2 ending? The whole heroes are stuck in a world of illusions where things are as they desire and the main character has to awaken them. I would love for Naruto to reach Sakura's dream world and see that it's her and Sasuke married with kids and him no where to be seen, that I hope would kill any feelings he still has for her. On the same note him reaching Hinata's world where the two of them have a family would be nice, or Hinata's having her way with his clones. **

**It look's like Kishi really like's fanfiction, a few fics do have Naruto becoming the new Juubi jinjuriki and Sasuke giving him his eyes. Meh Naruto still has the chakra from all the biju, I'm guessing it's going to be him vs Madara with Sasuke throwing Hashirama's jutsu in the mix. If Gaara uses that medical jutsu to revive him I call major bullshit.**

**Sasuke, uh well how do you think he will survive : option a) Sakura save's him, b) Karin save's him, c) Orochimaru save's him, d) he pull's a Zetsu out of his own ass and heal's himself, e ) same shit Danzo pulled only with a twist, knowing Kishi, Sasuke will have unlimited continues, something like heal any wound that would kill you for the cost of a normal bunshin, another secret power of the sharingan.**

**So did anyone else laugh their ass off after the last page where Sasuke got stabbed by Madara? I just want Sasuke to know that how he feel's right now is how Sakura feels 90% of the time, look's like she's going to do something useful and then bam she's useless again and needs someone to rescue her, case in point trying to take on one of the mini Juubi's and failing, big surprise, and needing a man to rescue her. A lot of people were saying that it's Sasuke's time to shine, well ha he shined alright for a few pages he really did, well okay not in the remotely useful kind of way more like he looked kind of cool but hey that's something. **

**Madara using Hashirama's words, nice touch I liked it. **


	2. Chapter 2 : A Dream I wish never ends

**I do not own Naruto, ****If I did... I would explain how Madara got those weapons that Tobi should have had. **

Talk now – normal talk  
_What now_ – normal thoughts  
**Speak – biju, higher being talk**  
_**Listen**_** – biju, higher being thoughts**

**Chapter 2 : A Dream I wish never ends**

"So what will you train me in?"A smiling Naruto, who stood on Sayaka lap, asked cheeringly.

Yukimura gave him a small smile, "First will start with some basic knowledge and then move on from that, I still don't have more recent knowledge of the world so until you can go to a library we'll teach you what I know."

Naruto pouted. "That sounds really boring."

"You are still young Naruto, doing any advanced form of physical training would do more harm than good to you now, what we are going to train is your mind."

"But that still sounds boring"

"A healthy mind in a healthy body. It is good saying to live by, quite often a person with a keen mind can overcome those with a stronger body."

"Really, but how?"

"Simple, because not all battles need to be fought physically, and even if you have a stronger body if you don't know much you can be easily manipulated by other people." Sayaka chimed in. "As ninja this will be even more important for you."

Yukimura rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner, "I think we can make learning a few things a bit easier by using games."

"You mean you'll play with me?" Naruto asked in a hopeful tone.

"Of course we will Naruto-kun." Sayaka told him.

"I don't think I ever want to leave this place."

"Eventually you will have to leave Naruto, you see this place is my realm, just like other gods I have my own realm and right now only a part of you is here, your body is in the Konoha hospital."

"But then…"

"Don't worry you don't have to leave soon, we have roughly a year here to train you before you need to go back. There are some rules regarding mortals entering a god's realm and staying there, but you will be able to return, and we will be able to talk to you when not here from time to time."

"Ok, but if you're a god can't you make other rules?"

"While I can do that, the rules are made with the human body in mind more than anything else, your body and soul have certain limits that once crossed can destroy you. In this sense I am limited to what I can do, I've already made some changes to you while I was healing you."

"What? You changed something about me?"

"More like fixed a few things that were broken, because of your treatment at the orphanage you were behind other children your own age, I just helped fix the damage done, I did add a bit of my knowledge to you, it's why you're able to understand a few more words then before. And I added something that the ladies will like in the future." Yukimura told him the last part in a sly tone of voice.

"Uh, even after achieving godhood a male's pride is still as sensible as ever." Sayaka spoke in an exasperated tone of voice.

"I don't think he or his descendents will mind all that much." Yukimura let out a small giggle.

"I do hope that you considered a fair and balanced deal for any potential girls he may have." Sayaka told him sharply.

"Of course, it's nothing that big, just you know a little bonus."

Sayaka let out a sigh."Men and their pride."

Naruto wasn't sure what they were talking about so he just ignored it. "So my body's weak?"

"The human body is an amazing thing Naruto-kun, but that doesn't mean it can withstand a god's realm permanently without certain things happening to it."

"Like what?"

"Changing you into something else, less then fully human, especially if you are still alive when entering the realm, the gods do so to play their own games."

"Whaa the gods play games to?!" Naruto asked in an amazed tone.

"Yes Naruto, but their games often include the lives of mortals as their playthings."

"Huh, why?"

"Why not? Rather than fight it out in an all out battle the gods use mortals as their pawns to help further their influence, they created their own creatures to help enforce that influence."

"That sounds mean."

"It is, in many more ways than you can imagine. But enough of that I think we should do something that every child should experience at least once in their life."

"Of you actually mean it?" Sayaka asked in an amused tone of voice.

"Yep I loved it when I was human." Yukimura answered her in an exuberant tone.

Sayaka laid Naruto gently on the bed and went around the bed to the large wooden wardrobe where she opened it and began looking threw it.

"Ano what are we going to do?"

"It's a surprise. But you'll like it." Yukimura told him winking at him.

"Naruto-kun come here." Sayaka told him motioning him over to her side.

Naruto slowly got out of the bed on the side near her and he could see Sayaka with several cloths in her hands, Naruto for his part noticed then he had on a white T-shirt and black short pants on.

"Now raise your hands Naruto-kun" Sayaka asked him in a sweet tone.

As he did so Sayaka helped him put on a thick woolen grey sweater, "All right now put these socks and this pair of pants on," which he noticed were a grey and light brown color respectively, she quickly helped him put them on, "and now this pair of pants", which he noticed, were of a dark blue color.

"Ano I already have one pair of pants on."

"Oh silly those are just to help keep you warm, these are for walking around in, besides these are more fashionable."

"Ano why do I need to two pairs of pants?"

"Well the place we're going to is rather cold."

"And now these boots Naruto-kun."

Naruto for his part had never seen boots like those before, they were of dark color and looked to be made of leather, interior was lined with fur, and the boot had a grey high side. Sayaka quickly helped him put them on and tie their laces.

Yukimura looked at the two smiling he could almost see the original doing something similar.

"Now this Naruto-kun", Sayaka said as she quickly placed a brown trapper hat with grey fur on his head, "oh and let's not forget the gloves, and the jacket."

Yukimura couldn't help but laugh, little Naruto looked like he had put on 10 kilos with all the clothes he had on him.

"You know I don't think he needs all those cloths Sayaka."

Sayaka didn't even look at him as she was helping Naruto put on his jacket. "You know I left you something in the kitchen."

"Really?" He asked in a curious tone "What?"

"A delicious tall glass of shut up juice you should hurry up and drink it, soon."

"Ahh I did make you make you in her image, I almost regret it now."

"No, you don't."

"Yeah, you're right."

"I'm sorry did you say something new."

"Apparently not"

"Ano do I really need all these clothes?"

"Well no, not really, but it's much easier for your mind to accept them given where we're going." Noticing Naruto's confused look he continues. "You see if were to travel to a place that look's to be cold your mind would perceive it as such and would tell you to behave in such a way, the same can be said if we traveled to a place that was to be warm. Creating familiar surroundings so the human mind doesn't break is something rather common for most gods."

"Ano why do the gods care about us mortals?"

"Because Naruto-kun most gods are assholes." Sayaka told him as she finished helping him with his jacket and nodded as she had a satisfied look on her face pleased with her work.

"Well Sayaka may have been a bit blunt with her general characterization, but there is some truth in that, you see Naruto there are two kinds of gods, the first born, who appeared after the creation of the world and the human made gods or the second born gods."

"Humans made gods!?" Naruto asked in a shocked tone of voice.

"Yes, threw their beliefs humans managed to create their own gods, and conflict soon arose between the first born and the second born. At first none of the first believed that the second born could ever truly defeat one of them much less kill one, that belief went out the window when one of the first ones died permanently at the hands of a second one."

"Is that uncommon?"

"Yes, very uncommon Naruto, in general killing a god is very difficult, usually it is done by a fellow god, though even if destroyed in time a god could slowly reform and return. However nothing is truly immortal, it takes time, patience and rather unique circumstances but even a god may truly die."

"The first born believed themselves better as they were self sustained so to speak, in essence it meant that they didn't need mortals to worship them to stay alive and gain power, the second born however need mortals to worship them to remain alive and gain more power. For example think of it this way, a god as a bottle, as mortals worship the god, a bit of water is added to the bottle and slowly more and more is added to it, now rather then overflow the bottle grows larger to accommodate the influx of water. The water represents a god's power, as he gains more, his realm can grow as well, to create something else say a new creature or weapon to use in battle a god often has to give up a small piece of his power, something that if you don't have a lot of you may not wish to do. Even if it's just a little bit of water in the bottle and the bottle breaks it can reform in time using that little bit of water in it. To truly kill a god one must destroy the water within him, eventually the water would run out thought it would take an extremely long period of time."

"But what about taking away the people that worship him?"

Yukimura smiled and gave him a proud grin. "Good question Naruto, nice of you to pick up on that."

"Now as I said once a god has that bit of power in the beginning even if he was to be destroyed and lose all of his followers once he or she reformed they could attempt to gain other followers. Even if it took a few years or a hundred years, a god could even attempt and gain followers in another part of the world rather than in the one where they were destroyed. They could either try to inspire a normal human and make them into their prophet in that region or find a way to send one of their already established preachers to that new region to spread his religion."

"So the more people who worship a god has the more power he can gain." Yukimura gave him a small head nod. "So what kind are you?"

"I was more of a first born one in my old form before then becoming the Juubi, who in turn ironically was also called the Devourer of Gods."

"Wait! you killed gods before? You ate them?"

"Yes, I devoured their power and added it to my own before, and as the Juubi and I did the same thing as my other form, though in my first god form I only devoured or killed a god when I believed that the respective god was truly evil and did not deserve to continue to live. While in the Juubi form it was more about a desire to feast on the gods, a burning hunger to consume them all. My own memories are still incomplete of the time as the Juubi, so exactly how it came into being is a mystery for the moment."

"What do you mean incomplete? Why are they like that?"

"Like I said before becoming the Juubi I was a god but something happened and I ended up becoming the Juubi losing quite a bit of my power, then Rikudo Sennin arouse and defeated the Juubi and split it apart into nine other beings know commonly as the biju in doing so he splintered me into many pieces and I lost even more of myself and my power. Heck I think a part of the Juubi is locked in the moon, something that's not going to be easy to get out."

"So if there are other biju does that mean that there are other people like me?"

"Yes, the first Hokage used his bloodline to subdue most of my other pieces and gave them out to the other villages who in turn locked them into humans to use as weapons, they were and still are diluted fools." He told him in a tone laced with anger. "The Shodai Hokage wanted to achieve some sort of peace this way", Yukimura shook his head, "the poor diluted fool, he and his clansmen ignored Rikudo Sennin's teachings and still claimed to desire peace, even with the small memories I have of that man I know this."

Naruto looked thoughtful for a few moments before she spoke up again. "So the other biju are parts of you? Will you take them back?"

"Yes, on both accounts, they are parts of me, different aspects of my original personality, though as the Kyuubi I managed to retain the most from my original form, the others also have important parts with them, parts that I need to become whole again and attain true freedom. I still am in many ways an incomplete being while those other parts of me are out there. If you're worried about the other then don't worry, the bare minimum I would need from them is my divine essence, once that is gone the mass of chakra would still remain and the hosts would still be live, I can take my time until I either find a way to unlock their seal and take the chakra without killing them or wait until someone tries to move the chakra and create a new jinjuriki, heck I can even wait and gather the chakra should they die a normal death of old age."

"Well ok, but what are you going to do when you have all the pieces back?"

"I'll leave this world of course and start traveling again, I do want to visit some places again and see new ones as well."

"What do you mean that you'll leave this world?"

"Just that Naruto, this world isn't the only one in this dimension, other first ones left this world to explore the rest of the universe, heck some like Prometheus went to bring life to another planet in this solar system, though I don't know how much success he had, and it will take a while for me to have the power to check on that."

"What's a planet? No wait, what's a solar system?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Uh…. Well damn, this is going to take a while, I better give you a shorter version and explain more later on when we start our lessons. The Solar System is made up of all the planets that orbit our Sun. In addition to planets, the Solar System also consists of moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets, and dust and gas. To better show you," Yukimura brought both arms together and in between them a white energy appeared, in it a blue orb with a few brown patches upon it quickly formed.

"What is that?" Naruto asked looking amazed.

"Our planet, the place we are currently on, and here," Yukimura said shifting the orb and focusing on a particular patch closely getting near it, "is the continent we are on, I don't know if the boundaries of Fire Country are the same but this, he said yet again focusing on a small part is where Konoha is located."

Naruto just looked at the image dumbfounded, "it looks so small, I thought that Konoha was huge."

Yukimura ruffled Naruto's hair playfully, "yes it's what happens, you often think unknowingly in a small box, but once a new idea enters your head that box begins to shake and soon enough you can tear it down. Once a mind expands it's almost impossible for it to revert to its old state. Now for the real mind blowing thing." The image quickly zoomed out and showed the blue orb at first but then it continued to zoom out until is showed other orbs some a bit smaller and a few larger ones, what made Naruto's eyes bulge was the last thing he show, a large orange orb that dwarfed all of the other orbs before it and looked like it could encompass all of them without any difficulty.

"What is that?" he asked looking amazed.

"The sun"

"It's huge!"

"Yep, the others small shapes are planets, though unfortunately they don't have any life on them, well perhaps one of them could have if Prometheus succeeded in his endeavor."

Naruto just stared dumbfounded at the image in front of him. "We look so small" Sayaka hugged him again.

"True while we may be small, it also shows us how unique life is Naruto-kun, out of all the chances you were born, because of this you have an obligation to yourself to live. Now" Sayaka looked towards Yukimura "if you're done with showing him things that could have waited a bit, I do believe we have a certain activity to perform."

"Oh right," he chuckled slightly as he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand and dispersed the image in his other hand.

"Here take my hand Naruto-kun" Naruto slowly took Sayaka's hand who gave him a warm smile.

"Alright then let's go" and Yukimura quickly made his way to the door and opened it revealing that it lead right into a snow storm.

"Wha, how did you do that?"

"It's my realm so it's not that hard, come one let's go."

After Naruto stepped threw the door all of his senses seemed to be assaulted by a cold sensation, when he looked around himself he realized that he was on a mountain of sorts during a snow storm, when he looked behind him he saw that the door had disappeared and that the there was no path back down, as he looked closer he couldn't see far up on the mountain they where. Yukimura let go of his right hand placed it on his back while Sayaka held on to his left hand.

"There's only forward now Naruto, don't worry it's not far from the top, just a few minutes of walking." Naruto could still hear him even with the winds blowing.

As the three walked forward, Naruto brought his right hand to his face lowering it from time to time to look forward, the wind seemed so sharp he could swear he heard a howl in the distance, it felt as if hundreds of needles were being shoved into his face, while trying to cut threw his cloths to reach his bones, at least now he was happy he had all the cloths on him. The slowly made their way upward as the wind and snow seemed to batter them time and time again as if trying to force them back and prove their dominance over them, Naruto felt Yukimura's hand gently nudge him from behind while Sayaka held firmly onto his left arm, the both of them reassuring him that hey were there for him. Inch by inch he seemed to move forward slowly, ever so slowly but he was making progress, he felt good as if he was winning some sort of battle as he slowly pushed forward with everything against him. Breathing had long since become more difficult, his face felt like it was on fire now, as he slowly moved forward he could hear the snow screech under his feet, he could barely see in front as the snow rushed towards him. He kept looking downward as he advanced, after a few more moments he realized that the wind seemed to have died down to a degree, he closed his eyes and pushed forward hoping that he was near the top, when he felt Yukimura squeeze his right shoulder and opened his eyes. As he opened his eyes he could he that they were out of the snow storm when he looked behind him he could see white clouds while in front the mountain top lay waiting for them.

"A few more steps now Naruto."

After a walking a few more steps upward they finally managed to reach the mountain top, that as Naruto could see was a clear plateau, the ground was mired by black rocks, the air seemed so clean he realized, the wind seemed to have stopped as well, gently Sayaka placed a hand under his chin and raised his head high once more, and Naruto was at the loss of words of the breathtaking view in front of him. In front of him the landscape was mired with white silvery clouds that glided almost imperceptibly against the sky that was of a beautiful clear blue, the sun could be seen in the distance glistening like a small golden jewel, it felt as if he was on top of the world.

"Breathtaking isn't it Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded still looking at the view in front of him. He slowly turned to his right and could see Yukimura lay down in a meditative position.

"I rather like this place to meditate it helps to clear the mind and put's things in perspective."

"It really looks amazing, it's like we're on top of the world."

"Heh, I did make this place rather big, it's similar to an old mountain I climbed at one time, still beautiful as heck, but with less creatures trying to eat you."

"There were creatures trying to eat you?"

"A few, a wolf here and there, an ice troll, a weresheap."

"What are…"

"I think someone should remember why we're up here in the first place."

"Ano is this what you wanted us to do?"

"Nope, this is part of it, figured if we're going to do that we might as well go big, insanely big in this case."

"We can do it in a more normal way next time Naruto-kun."

"So what are we going to do then?"

Yukimura smiled and pointed behind Naruto. A light wooden frame body supported by two smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners.

"What is that?"

"Oh my dear sweet boy" Yukimura shook his head, "that is a sleigh, and it is awesome in many ways."

"What's it for?"

"Having fun" Yukimura told Naruto with a smile on his face. Yukimura slowly pushed the sleigh near the edge of the mountain top and got on it towards it rear end with one leg on either side of it. "Well come one get on." Sayaka quickly got in front him and made a small hand motioning Naruto to sit in front of her.

"Is it safe?" he asked looking at the sleigh.

"Of course it is, it's my realm I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you here. Well come on get on."

Naruto hesitantly got on the sleigh and held onto its sides with his arms, Sayaka placed her arms around his body to hold him. "So what are we going to do now?"

"Now the fun part begins."

Naruto slowly felt the sleigh begin to move as Yukimura pushed it forward using his legs, he quickly tightened his grip on the sleigh as he noticed that they were slowly nearing the side of the mountain. "Why are we nearing the side of the mountain" he stuttered.

"Because we're going over it Naruto-kun."

"Oh….. What?" He yelled.

"Yep, go big or go broke, now hold on tight."

Naruto looked on as the sleigh slowly got closer to edge of the mountain before finally going over it, what followed was the most insane thing he had ever done, he screamed his head off the whole way down, as they rushed down the mountain faster and faster, the cold air brushing against him.

"How about we add some obstacles?"

"You are not drifting with the sleigh!" Sayaka warned him.

"It'll be fun."

Naruto eyes bulged once more as trees started to appear in front of them sprouting from the ground up. "Trees! trees!" He yelled.

"Don't worry I see them." Yukimura told him and quickly maneuvered the sleigh to right barely missing a tree, before quickly doing the same thing again to avoid another tree, the next few moments saw them quickly moving to the right and to the left to avoid the trees before finally clearing them.

"One last obstacle before clear sailing"

As Naruto looked forward he could see a small bit of the snow slowly rise up, he was worried they crash into it, his surprise was far greater when the sleigh actually used it as a launch pad, for a few moments he could feel his body rising from the sleigh as they where in the air, his hands attempting to dig into the sleigh, he let out a relived breath when he felt Sayaka's firm hands around his body that pulled him closer to her, and then just as quickly as he was up he came crashing back down as the sleigh hit the ground again and continued it trip downhill once more. It still took them a while to reach to bottom, time that seemed to fly by as the scenery became a white blur and the wind seemed to throw itself against them, until finally they slowed down and reached the end of their trip. As Naruto realized they had finally stopped, he could hear his own ragged breath and heart beating, but one thought was on his mind above all else. "Let's do it again!" He said in a low whisper.

"Heh, see he liked it" the next thing Yukimura knew was Sayaka's fist colliding with his head. "Owww"

"It should have been a simple sleigh ride down, not maneuvering threw trees, you know things don't work that way in the world."

"It was still fun. Besides wait until he tries the other stuff, now then let's go back up and that a few more times, right Naruto?"

"Heck ya datebayo!" Naruto screamed standing on the sleigh in an exuberant happy tone.

A moment later both Yukimura and Sayaka burst out laughing. Yukimura calmed himself down and whent over to Naruto patting him on the head. "Remember this Naruto whatever you do, enjoy it to the fullest, that is the secret of life."

* * *

Sayaka gently closed the door to Naruto's room as she exited it.

"Well?"

"He's asleep, considering what we did today I'm not too surprised."

"He had fun that's what important, things went as expected."

Sayaka nodded her head, "Considering his life it isn't that big of a surprise, honestly we could have been pure evil and chances are he would have accepted our offer, he's so easy to manipulate"

"It's mostly likely that's what the Hokage desired, Naruto's still a small child and can be easily influenced, let the world seem against him and appear as the small light Naruto can cling to."

"He really doesn't compare to the master, I feel I'm dishonoring him just by mentioning the two in the same sentence, much less comparing the two."

"True, there really isn't a comparison between the two"

"Mostly likely Naruto will still have questions about the realm and the other gods, eventually we are going to have to tell him about his parents, especially about his mother being your former jailor and the threat he may face in the future with that masked man."

"We still don't if he's still alive, perhaps the Yondaime did something useful once in his life and killed him."

"Considering your luck I doubt that, wounded yes, dead no. So what should each of us teach him?"

"Hmm, we'll need the look over the knowledge I currently still have once more, training him in the use of chakra will be difficult."

"We could try to reverse engineer some of the other attacks perhaps we may achieve some sort of success."

"True, perhaps we could use some of the magic training from the other worlds and adapt it to use for chakra as well, the elemental training should be rather useful if done right, magic molding was damn awesome in its own way."

"Indeed, will you attempt to pierce the veil to find a world and learn jutsus from it?"

"A good idea, but that's still hit and miss, I'll need a lot more time to prepare for it."

"Then trying to see variations of the future?"

"Yes, that's our best bet it will take less time than to pierce the veil."

"I'm still worried about the chance of other gods awakening as well, it would set our plans back quite a lot, not taking into account if they would need to be dealt with in a permanent fashion."

"Ah, yes, with my incomplete memories, we still don't know who's left of the gods, at the very least the first born should be gone from this world, the threats remaining should be more manageable."

"Indeed, but perhaps you should claim a domain of the gods"

Yukimura gave her a puzzled look before his eyes widened. "I see, yes I suppose that could work, if push comes to shove I could transform myself into something similar to that god and claim his identity, it would attract less attention then that of a brand new god suddenly appearing or attracting the other's attention of a possible recent ascended being, and old one returning while still something would be far less interesting then a brand new power appearing on the scene."

"Exactly" she told him nodding her head, "the question remains who though, that god must be truly dead and he must not have any creatures that may yet recognize him."

"Hmm", he seemed thoughtful for a moment "Inari, could be a good choice"

"As a fox? How terribly original"

"Meh, as the Juubi I devoured that god not long before the meeting with the sage, I know for certain that no one knows about our battle and that no other creatures of Inari are left alive, perhaps I could add a bit to the domain once I claim it, that Inari absorbed the essence of other gods from the Juubi's rampage could help that claim, we could use the excuse that after absorbing the essence Inari had gone threw a processes of great change that required hibernation."

"I suppose its better than nothing, the least attention the Kyuubi draws the better, but would you actually heed the people's calls when they came? Could you help their fields grow rich with rice?"

"That may be a bit more tricky true, but hmm," he smiled, "creating fox summons and having Naruto sign the fox contract would be hilarious in many ways."

"Creating more life and ones that could give you away? I think not."

"Uh it's just an idea."

"Not a well thought out one."

"Well, the second one would if we played our cards right would bring the kid some extra money."

"Oh?" She asked in a curious tone. "Do tell."

"Simple, we have him publish some books from the other worlds, I remember reading quite a few of them, we'll have to edit some of them a bit but it could help to build him a nice large nest egg."

"That's, that's actually a very good idea."

"Damn straight, I could try to use the small opening we have and go find a publisher myself and get the ball rolling but all things considered especially the time difference it would be best that we wait a bit more."

"Indeed, did you discover anything about the dark taint that his core posses?"

"No," he shook his head "I tried but it's tied to him at a fundamental level, we'll need to monitor the situation for the foreseeable future, the only theory I have is that something happened at the sealing with the Shinigami doing something to him."

"So it could be tied to the runes on the cage."

"Exactly, those runes aren't from this continent originally, how the Yondaime got them and was able to use them is a mystery that needs solving."

"So the possibility of a god having awakened and interfering with the sealing grows, to have the Kyuubi on the leash would be a tempting prize, worth trying to fight the Shinigami over."

"True, but then that raises its own questions, like why only seal half of the Kyuubi? Why not try to have that god aid in the battle and since he already interfered why not seal the whole Kyuubi, then the Yondaime could live to tell the tale. Even after looking threw the kid's memories I haven't found someone that looks even remotely tied to the supernatural."

"Half of the Kyuubi is better then none of it, and not making it's presence know just yet, staying in the shadows could be more important to that player, not to mention that having the Yondaime as a loyal warrior would be a boon to any god."

"So would the Yondaime slowly spreading that god's religion in Konoha, building a good strong base to help gain control over this continent."

"Indeed, just questions and theories for now with few answers, so then the usual spar?"

"After you my lady"

"Still such a gentlemen"

* * *

When Naruto first awoke he kept his eyes closed, the dream last night had been so good he wanted to remember it a bit more, he was the jinjuriki of the Kyuubi, who had become a god again and created the nice lady, and had been human at one point, they had been kind to him and offered to train him, they even took him sledding. As Naruto stirred in his head, he stopped when he noticed his bed seemed unusually soft, the usual smell of his room wasn't present either, he was too afraid to open his eyes, he simply moved around in his bed, it did feel a lot softer then his, he usually slept on the floor. Naruto gritted his teeth and slowly opened his eyes, only to remain mouth open at the sight in front of him, it was the same room from his dream, _it wasn't a dream!, _everything had been real he realized. Now Naruto was ecstatic, he threw the blanket's of himself, and saw that he was wearing the pajamas the nice lady had helped him change into last night, a beige shirt with three buttons near his neck and black pajama pants.

He spotted the chair that Sayaka sat upon yesterday a bit farther away with some cloths on it, a pair of dark blue short pants and a red T-shirt with a spiral design on it and a pair of simple black slippers under the chair. _They must have left the clothes for me to wear_. He heard a small knock on the door, "Yes?" He asked in a quiet tone of voice.

Sayaka entered the room dressed in a beige kimono with flower patterns on it. "It's good that you are awake, we can have breakfast now."

"You're actually real" He told her in an awed tone.

"Of course, did you think it was all just a dream?"

Naruto nodded.

Sayaka slowly made her way towards him and kneeled down and hugged him tightly. "We are very real Naruto-kun, never doubt that, alright?"

"Hai" he answered her teary eyed, no one had shown him so much affection before.

"Now I left some clothes for you yesterday after I tucked you in, you can wear them or choose some of your own from the wardrobe."

"I have my own clothes?"

"Yes, we didn't know exactly what would fit your taste so we created quite a few clothes." Sayaka led Naruto to the wardrobe and opened it up, once he saw what was inside Naruto's jaw all but hit the floor, there were dozens of cloths, shirts, T-shirts, pants, short pants, sweaters all of different colors, red, blue, orange, light green, even some pink ones, and all with models on them, he hadn't seen so many cloths even at the orphanage.

"You can wear whatever you want Naruto-kun, after you change please join us for breakfast." And with that Sayaka left the room.

Naruto after looking threw them all he decided to wear what Sayaka had left on the chair yesterday. Once dressed he made his way towards the door, hesitating in opening it for a moment, he remembered how it had led to a mountain yesterday, he took a large breath and then opened the door. To his joy it lead into a hallway were the light was a dimmed blue, he could see a few other closed doors, the floor was made of hardwood, the walls were of a beige color, the ceiling looked to have small crystals upon them in a few places that emitted the light. He stepped out in the hallway and made his ways to the right where he could see a golden light coming from an opened door and could hear noises. Once he stepped inside the kitchen he saw Yukimura, who was wearing dark pants, a dark shirt with the shoulder a beige color, the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and Sayaka sitting at a large table with various jars on it eating pancakes, the orphanage caretakers had rarely made such food and even more rarely had he ever eaten something like that, even more rare was the fact that they had fruit juice, something he had only seen others drink.

"Have a seat and eat Naruto, we weren't certain if you had eaten something like this before."

"Only twice, they actually gave me one a long time ago and I managed to get one that the caretakers wanted to throw away because it wasn't as good as the others."

A frown graced both Yukimura and Sayaka's faces. "Well that isn't the case here Naruto-kun so eat up."

"Hai", he quickly began eating with great gusto trying the contents of various jars. The taste seemed incredible to him, each jar brought an explosion of taste with it. "Ano what are in these?" He asked pointing at the different jars.

"Well, some have apple jam, strawberry and plum jam, honey, chocolate and even some apricot jam."

"What's jam?"

"Ugh… that's wow, let's skip over that for the moment."

"Ano, why am I not that hungry it feels weird, I'm usually a lot more hungry."

"Well again you don't need to eat while here but seeing as how you will need to return one day it's best we encourage your desire to eat to ensure you stick with the behavior."

"Why don't I need to eat while here?"

"Because you aren't here with your physical body that needs the nourishment, the soul can survive just fine without it, but some gods prefer to have food in their afterlife, it depends on what afterlife a person ends up in."

"Afterlife?"

"Remember how I told you that some gods need mortal to worship them to gain power?"

"Hai"

"Well, some of those gods also have afterlives where mortals souls that worshiped them end up in, some places have food there, though once a soul leaves the body it doesn't actually need to eat food. For example the goddess Kalahira had the Golden Planes, a good description for that place is best summoned up in prayer for her, guide this one to where the traveler never tires, the lover never leaves, the hungry never starve."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"It wasn't, sadly she and the rest of her fellow pantheon gods were killed during the wars of the gods."

"The wars of the gods?" Naruto asked pouring himself some juice.

"Yes, once the gods discovered that bit about mortals giving them more power they began to fight each other, some chose direct battle with each other, while in time realizing that a direct battle would leave the winner exposed and vulnerable to an attack by others the gods, they began to create various creatures and use mortals as their own play things to fight their battles, only striking at the other gods when they were sufficiently weakened. Though getting there required a few wars, in which many people died and the landscape changed greatly."

"That sounds mean, using people like that for power."

"It is what it is, and in hindsight it was better than a direct battle between gods as those were far more brutal and destructive. I think the Juubi came into existence during one of those god wars, though the memories are still incomplete and foggy in some cases."

"The Juubi killed a lot of gods?"

"Yes, gods, demigods, ascended beings, spirits, demons, they all fell before the Juubi."

"Demons exist? Wait, spirits exist as well? And what about the other things?"

"Right, well, um where to start."

"Allow me" Sayaka told Yukimura "Naruto-kun listen, at the top of hierarchy are the second born gods, the first born gods should all be gone from this world, the second born gods are split between the major and minor gods, they are followed by the ascendant beings, who are either creatures or mortals who have gained enough power to stand close to the gods, in some cases even manage to fight against them on even grounds and put fear into their hearts, generally speaking Ascension occurs after a person has found and absorbed the essence left behind by other gods and creatures made by the gods and took it into themselves, or there were also cases where they experienced an amount of power from a gods realm and absorbed it. Another explanation would be that an ascendant being is anybody who cannot die from natural causes, old age, and sickness, they can be killed by other means and have access to magic. Though some ascendants are weaker then demigods some are stronger as well and it is why they are ranked higher."

"Demigods are a divine or supernatural being, they were more of an experiment by the second gods. The term has been used in various ways at different times and can refer to a figure who has attained divine status after death, usually they are granted this power by a god, some minor deities are closer in power to demigods rather than gods, there is also the case of a mortal who is the offspring of a god and a human. To our knowledge all the demigods should be dead." Sayaka paused for a moment to clear her throat and let Naruto absorb what she had just told him.

"Demons were created by one of the first born gods when the second born gods began to gain more power and followers, it was a way to curtail their growing arrogance. Sacrificing himself that god gave the demons the potential to reach the power of the second born gods, all of the demons have a bit of that gods essence and thus a path to power is open to them, but gaining access to that power is difficult. The strongest of the demons were the demon lords, they were the ones that would lead the other demons to war, the strongest of the demon lords was Urgash, he was the only one to become the ruler of all demons, he created a realm for the demons, similar to how the gods have a realm of their own, and had actually managed to permanently kill a god of war who foolhardily challenged him to a battle. After that act the demon wars began where the gods and their pawns waged war with the demon to exterminate them, most of the demons and the strongest of their kind died in the last demon war, what little remained behind were hunted down by human hunter groups dedicated to exterminating them, very few should be left behind, if any at all, mostly likely what remains are scattered and hidden in various parts of the world slowly rotting away, some likely either sleeping or sealed away."

"Sleeping?"

"Yes the last war of the gods forced many beings into a deep slumber to recover, others hid themselves away out of fear of that cataclysmic war."

"Was it that bad?"

"Yes, it was the last war of the gods that ended the age of the gods, exactly what happened is still a mystery to us, but after it the Juubi was the only true power left behind, and it too was eventually defeated by Rikudo Sennin."

"So why didn't the others come out then?"

"Like I said before Naruto-kun, the few gods that remained were wounded and needed time to lick their wounds, some likely needed time to reform. While the other beings couldn't awaken so soon after entering their slumber, a few creatures did attempt to take advantage of the situation, but when you have someone like Rikudo Sennin who defeated the Juubi, those attempts are destined to failure, that time period also saw the appearance and rise of the shinobi, add the new biju running around and the creatures soon found themselves out matched. Demons are a bit more difficult to classify as some are so weak that a lowly untrained human can kill them while others need far power to be killed."

"Like Urgash"

"Exactly Naruto-kun. The second born gods usually looked down on the demons, who to gain more power must draw it out from inside themselves, and can not absorb the essence of the other gods, they can however make it into weapons to use it against the gods, and can use some of the artifacts the gods create, a few managed to corrupt them, the demons gain much less power from mortal worshippers when compared to the gods, more like small drops compared to a full glass that the gods gain."

"Now another class would be the spirits, this is also quite a diverse group as a few are man made, while others were created by the gods."

"Why would they create them?"

"Some created to serve them others to terrorize humans and have the humans turn to them for protection from such things. Manipulation was a common thing for the gods hence why I said they are assholes. Though spirits come in different shapes and forms, some good, some evil, one example is that of a river spirit that protects its specific river. While they may have the power to stand against some demons none can actually fight against the gods and hope to win. The last class would be that of the creatures, heralds and servants of the gods, like I said before some gods created creatures to serve them and fight for them, likewise they vary greatly in power, though very few ever reach the power of a demigod, heralds are chosen mortals by the gods who receive some power from a god in some form or another. Some gods preferred to change the mortals that worshipped them after death into creatures then quickly send them into battle, they have some of their worshippers trained to become warriors for them once they die."

"A special case here are the avatars, they are arguably the largest summons to date, with nearly all the titans matching the biju in height and can match or in some cases out match a tailed beast in strength. Because of their immense size, avatars are highly resilient to nearly all physical attacks. The avatars may be slow and heavy, but their massive strength is capable of destroying hordes of shinobi within seconds. They are not very physically beautiful in any way, but vanity and other worldly qualms do not concern them. The avatars were created ages ago during the war of the gods, and were their trump cards, they required the gods to gave up a large part of their power while creating them, unlike other creatures the avatars had little will and mind of their own, they were created for war and didn't need much of that anyway. Again thankfully all of them should be dead, their own power made them reach somewhere around demigod power, exceeding it even a few times. The problem was that they weren't very smart and did have their own glaring weaknesses, tales of heroes slaying such beasts still exist around the world, mortals do not know the truth about why does battles were fought anymore believing that the heroes fought to defeat the creatures to save them when in truth they simply fought because their gods waged war with each other."

"It all sounds so…"

"Messed up?"

"Yes"

"It is, it's all a giant cluster fuck"

"Uh shouldn't you watch your language" Yukimura asked only to receive a small smack on the head. "Owww, why?"

"You should have stopped me from saying it."

"Ugh, you would have hit me even then"

"Never the less"

"What does fuck mean?" Naruto asked with a confused look on his face.

"It's a bad word Naruto-kun and Yukimura will explain it more later"

"Um, yeah, sure I will."

"In any case, we believe that the problem began when the world was still young and the energy that created the world was still present in some quantity, we believe that it was this that gave humans the power to create the second born gods and other creatures, in time that energy seems to have disappeared and that's the reason why humans haven't been able to create other gods recently."

"Honestly I think sometimes that the Juubi was the great equalizer, it didn't create alliances, it didn't care about what the god's domain was, or if it was a spirit, a demigod or demon, the Juubi devoured them all, perhaps it appeared to help end the conflict of the gods."

"So it was a good creature?"

"More like a force of nature, it didn't care about good or evil, it just was, with one move it destroyed mountains and created fields in their place while with another it destroyed cities leaving only ruins."

"Well let's just finish eating, so we can get your training started."

* * *

After Naruto had finished eating Sayaka had shown him where the bathroom was so he could wash up and afterwards the three made their way out of the house, when he existed the house Naruto could see a small garden, the road leading to the front door was paved and had three trees on each side who's branches seemed to unite above the peoples heads to provide shadows, he could fell a soft gentle breeze caress his face. A small bench could be found on the right side with a large tree behind it providing cover from the sun; it was a bit farther from the trees with a path leading to it. Around all kinds of flowers could be found, it looked as if every color was present there, they were artfully arranged and complemented each other to create an ocean of color, Naruto simply stared at how beautiful everything was.

Sayaka placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and he looked at her away from the flowers, she gently ruffled his hair.

"If you want we can teach you how to garden as well"

Naruto gave her a small head nod and took her hand as they started to move forward, as they walked down the path that led away from the house he could saw that they were soon walking threw a forest, soon enough the three were in a large green clearing with a few trees and a lake nearby; their large house could still be seen in the distance. Yukimura turned to him and asked. "Well then ready to begin Naruto?"

"Hai!"

Yukimura and Sayaka gave him a warm smile. "Good, now then first thing's first, we need to go over what we will train in respectively, the list is rather large"

"It is?"

"Yes, like we said before, you will unfortunately have to become a shinobi and that will some extra training and skills."

"Aren't shinobi heroes?" He asked curiously, the old man with the funny hat had always told him and the other orphans that shinobi were heroes.

"Hardly, they may have started that way, but have long since fallen from grace reduced to lowly hired mercenaries, doing whatever they can for money. From what I remember of Rikudo Sennin, the mortal had desired that teaching people about chakra would lead to peace and stability, it would give people the power to fight against demons and spirits without needing to bend the knee to other creatures. Unfortunately somewhere along the way they fell from grace, and started fighting amongst themselves, spilling their own blood, perhaps it was the fact that they only had each other to fight against as the other creatures went into hiding or were exterminated by them or perhaps it was simple human nature."

"True heroism Naruto, is a very different thing, first, it's performed in service to others in need, whether that's a person, group, or community or in defense of certain ideals. Second, it's engaged in voluntarily, even in military contexts, as heroism remains an act that goes beyond something required by military duty. Third, a heroic act is one performed with recognition of possible risks and costs, be they to one's physical health or personal reputation, in which the actor is willing to accept anticipated sacrifice. Finally, it is performed without external gain anticipated at the time of the act. Shinobi perform mission for money, be they to hunt down bandits, to guard a certain group, assassinate someone, or deliver packages, at the end of the line they know that they will get paid, a mission shouldn't be about money it should be about leaving some good behind."

"Shinobi call themselves heroes and heroes have standards, those standards call certain methods of fighting good and others evil, acting as if there were some nobility to the battlefield, when in truth they bathe in the darkness they call evil. Such illusions, perpetrated by so called heroes throughout history, have led countless young men and women to their bloody deaths, all for the sake of this valor and glory. The people call the Yondaime Hokage a hero for what he did in the war, but he is a war hero not a true hero in my opinion, what did he do? He killed hundreds with his technique, hundreds of parents lost their children, hundreds of children cried for their parents to return, only to fall on death ears. The only consolation is that those people would have killed other people creating their own casualties, it was good that he killed them because our side did not lose any people and the enemie's lost many, the shinobi believed. Understand this Naruto unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other people, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are the people who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, people always privately want to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes." Yukimura shook his head.

"Conviction is what drives a true hero, conviction, in my opinion, is true power. Conviction means a strong persuasion or belief; with that any hero has the strength to do what they do everyday. When everyone else is ready to fold conviction is what helps them beat the odds. This was proven time and time again as they went against this forced evolution. The people of Konoha may claim that their shinobi have to will of fire burning brightly in them, but my question is if they truly do or is it just the indoctrination that they are submitted to as young children? People call the kages heroes, ridiculous, heroes are made by the paths they choose and not the powers they are graced with. My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight."

"So what should I do if I become a shinobi? If I don't have another path to walk on?"

" If you don't have another path to walk on then you create one Naruto-kun, if it doesn't exist yet then make it yourself, do not follow the same path others have walked so many times, leave the beaten and old path behind you and walk forward on a different path one made by you."

"Can I actually do that?"

"Of course you can Naruto-kun."

"Never doubt yourself, once you put your mind to something you have no idea of what you can achieve. Two of the most important things that we will train are your mind and will Naruto, your will is also be tied to your conviction, once we're done with you'll have a keen mind and an iron will."

With a swift movement of his hand Yukimura made several tree stumps appear from the ground with several board sets upon each of the tree stumps. "Each of these boards has a game that we will play Naruto, Shogi, Chu Shogi, Makruk, Xiangqi, Boku and Reversi, all excellent games to help develop your mind, it will be your deadliest weapon. Remember this Naruto direct action is not always the best way. It is a far greater victory to make another see through your eyes than to close theirs forever."

"An iron will means to be resolute and sometime even stubborn and obstinate Naruto-kun, it will help you persevere in the face of adversity, this way when you encounter life's hardships and even should it rain fire down upon you will be able to move forward and not brake when others fall to pieces, you will grit your teeth and keep going just a bit more to accomplish your goal, because in the end that's how winning is done."

"Can I really be like that?"

"You are no more powerful than you make yourself Naruto. If you see yourself as having a weakness, you are simply increasing the problem. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Standing in combat against another with the confidence begat of one who is convinced of their immortality is in itself a fierce weapon. How might a man stand against a god? What mortal cannot be unnerved by the snarling power of an immortal? Do not underestimate the power of your attitude or sell yourself short. Never allow yourself to be pushed, let there be no doubt in your enemy's mind that they are up against a superior force and that they will be defeated. The greatest of training can falter when your opponent fears you. Make them fear you Naruto."

Naruto nodded his head.

"One thing that will be vital to your survival will be your ability to deceive and lie to people."

"You want me to lie to people? Why?"

"A shinobi will have to deal with lies and deceit in his life Naruto, and if you slip and let people know about me what do you think will happen?"

"They'd hurt me?" he asked in a frightened tone.

"Yes, more so than before, you must keep my and Sayaka's existence a secret Naruto, and that will require learning how to deceive and lie to people. If you get too strong too fast that will also attract people's attention so you will need to hide your abilities for a time."

"How long?"

"Mostly likely you will only be able to reveal bits and pieces and only use everything you have when you are certain no one else is nearby."

"The thing we can train you right away is ambidexterity, it means being able to use both hands equally as well, people are usually right or left handed, one hand is dominant, and if you injure it you would in trouble and have difficulties using the other arm, so we will teach you will to use both equally as well."

"That sounds cool"

"Add a bit of speech to better haggle with merchants, some diplomacy and teaching you to be more persuasive, how to have keen eye, how to sneak, have a muffled movement, pickpocket, and how to properly lock pick."

"You still enjoy that a bit too much."

"It's nice, and there's a pleasure in sneaking in a place picking the locks and robbing it blind."

"You want me to steal from people?"

"Shinobi will be required to do so Naruto, and it will be more about testing yourself, think of it as helping people test their security measures."

"I guess that doesn't sound too bad."

"Add learning how to meditate, lead people and gain political pull." Noticing Naruto's look he continued.

"In the future you will sadly need to learn how to gain political pull to help make your life a bit easier."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"You shouldn't need to do so in the first place," Yukimura told Naruto in a depressed tone, before letting out a sigh "personally I've always liked alchemy and herbalism, with magic present in this world it will be more interesting to use it. Alchemy is the art of brewing potions and poisons by combining ingredients with matching effects. Initially, you don't know the effects of ingredients and must discover them by eating ingredients, reading recipes, or brewing them into potions. Herbalism is use of plants for medicinal purposes, and the study of such use. Plants have been the basis for medical treatments through much of human history."

Sayaka stepped up next Naruto. "There are skills on how to fight while blind, governing estates, blacksmithing, logistics to help with path finding and urban tracking, my own preference are tactics and the art of war though."

"What's that?"

"The art of war which is the art of winning conflict is to have a state of perpetual surprise. To be invisible through secrecy which makes you impervious to attack. To rig the board for your victory through careful planning which ensures constant victory. To never be predictable or measurably by your enemies through deception which makes you more an idea, a phantom, an unstoppable force than just a man. Those who studied the art of war know that the size of an army is only part of how a battle is won. Other elements, like weather, and land, play a major part of it, allowing even a smaller army to defeat one that is much larger than their own. Many however still often believe that it all comes down to who can mass a larger army faster, a false belief, the shinobi started as much smaller in number and only later grew in size, however even now they are much smaller in size then the regular army. Terrain, where you fight usually determines if you die or not thus picking a battlefield is as important as having soldiers. A great deal of elements can affect the terrain and play a big part in how they affect your troops. For example a forest can allow you to set up ambushes, you can hide your troops in them, use them as cover to protect your troops however they would make larger-units, such as siege weapons move slower. A narrow path or a cliff could be a path through a cliff, valley, a dense forest, bridges it would limit the passage way, and allow only a few units to engage one another at time, if can get the high ground while the enemy crosses threw a narrow valley victory will almost certainly be yours. Uneven terrain, hills, rough landscape and swamps make the movement of the army much slower were as open fields and flat land allow units to move faster. Thus as you can see, certain army composition would work better on certain battlefields. Another thing to consider is the army size, speed and movement. A larger army tends to move slower than a small often this allows Guerilla-like hit-and-retreat tactic to be workable against large armies, especially on a favorable terrain."

"Such as forests?"

"Exactly Naruto-kun." She gave him a proud smile.

"But leadership attributes could help negate some of that, a commander could have units already prepared to deal with any attacks. Something that is vital to consider is the weather, rain, fog, sunshine, cloudy, all which have an effect on the field, and thus in battle. Consider attack an army when it is raining or there is fog, a fog would decrease visibility while the rain would do something similar but would also change the terrain making it muddy, and thus decrease the armies speed. Last would be the day and night cycle, hit them when they least expect it."

"While there are other skills we can teach you, some are more related to certain jobs, like that of carpenter, distiller, fur trapper, cotton planter , sugar planter and hunter."

"So if I learn all of these would I gain power?"

"No Naruto you would gain strength."

"How is that any different?"

"Strength is different than power. Power is ability to affect things but it can be used by you without being innately yours. Strength on the other hand is the discipline and cultivation of your own character and self. A sword is power but the speed and skill you use to take it from your enemy is strength. Strength is yours. A part of you. Strength of will, intelligence, and skill. Strength of character such as determination or diligence. A sword is a power. It must be picked up and set down to benefit you. The skill that you wield it with is a strength. It is you. Strength is personal potency and perfection. After you are totally destroyed your power is gone but your strength remains. Powers rise and fall but strength cannot be taken from you."

"Strength sounds much better."

"It is Naruto-kun."

"Well then, let's start with some games then shall we?"

* * *

Tea Country

The fire crackled as Hiroki Takahashi stirred it with an iron pike, picking up a log he placed it in the fireplace, the house had a nice choosy felling to it, the fire created shadows that danced on the walls of the room. Hiroki drank a bit of warm milk from his mug as he watched the fire, autumn had finally arrived and soon winter would follow. This had been a good year for the people, the harvest plentiful; the fields only needed a bit of more work before they would be ready for winter.

Hiroki's strong arms ached from the work he had done today but he didn't mind, it was good honest work, he looked over to his room, his wife and child had gone to sleep early and he would join them in a short while, his thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the front door. Hiroki got up and picked a wooden club he had made with his father when bandits had been spotted roaming threw the land years ago; many of his neighbors had done the same, even if they never had that kind of trouble he and the others kept one around.

Hiroki went to the door keeping the club behind him, it could be a neighbor but he would rather not risk it, he let a breath and opened the door. The sight was not what he expected, there in front of him were two men both wearing almost entirely white clothing, they were both wearing white haoris that stretched past their knees with a golden outline around the edges, a black sash around their waists, white gloves and black boots. The two men each carried a bag on their right side and were carrying a thick white covered book in their hands. The first man was a blonde of average size, fair complexion, his hair was spiky in the back and he had two bangs framing his face and wore grey rimmed glasses, he was smiling. The second man was much taller then the blond man, he had tan skin, a military cut hairstyle and very small white eyes, he appeared to have some sort of block like grey boots that covered most of his legs, on his left shoulder was a metal shoulder guard, he wore a stoic expression.

"Good to meet you sir! The blond man began in a passionate tone. "We wanted to ask you if you've heard the good news?"

Hiroki looked at the two, he wasn't sure what to say. "Good news?"

"Oh yes, it is about the one true god who suffers for you dear sir!"

Hiroki scratched his head, he had heard about some gods but he had never heard about one that suffered for him. "Well I've never heard about him."

"That's alright sir, do you have a few moments to talk about him?"

"Well", Hiroki looked to the inside of his home.

"Oh, we don't need to enter your home sir!" The man looked offended at the suggestion. "Out here is perfectly fine all we ask are for a few moments of your time to talk about the one true god and his good book." The blond man handed Hiroki the thick white covered book.

Hiroki was still puzzled, they didn't appear to be thieves, they were polite, passionate perhaps about their beliefs. "I guess I can spare a few moments." Hiroki stepped out of his home closing the door to it.

"That's all we ask my dear sir."

That night Hiroki would spend reading the thick white covered book given to him, soon he would become brother Hiroki, fully embracing his new religion and god.

* * *

Review away

The Ten Commandments of Reviewing - created by FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D, post them if you agree and use them yourself

1) Thou shalt point out the parts you enjoy  
2) Thou shalt point out the parts you disliked, if any.  
3) Thou shalt point out the parts you utterly hated and explain why  
4) Thou shalt write with good grammar!  
5) Thou shalt not give annonymous reviews, for the authors might want to reply to thine criticism!  
6) Thou shalt not flame  
7) Thou shalt write a four sentence paragraph minimum!  
8) Thou shalt use constructive criticism!  
9) Thou shalt review as much as possible, not merely once!  
10) Thou shalt voice thine expectations

Constructive criticism or pointing out a possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

Check out the poll on my page and the forum where the other polls are.

* * *

A.N :

- I don't think I did that great of a job describing the feeling of reaching a mountain top and the view from there.

- Everyone should go sledding when young, it's freaking awesome.

- The explanation about the gods and spirits is basically that its all a big cluster fuck, humans creating their own gods is an interesting idea that I liked, if you manage to read about the different pantheons from different cultures you can tell just what kind of messed up gods humans thought existed.

- The last bit of about heroism I actually got of the internet while searching for a more expanded definition of what heroism is and I personally agree with it.

- A lot of quotes from other people in this chapter.

- The part that sounds like that of a Sith is just that, I got it from a website long ago, sadly I don't remember the exact site, still that bit is from there, and its awesome.

- Well the good news is that I already have 3 pages written out and another 2 sketched out for the next chapter that got cut from here, I was planning on having him wake up here but I decided against it in the end.


	3. Chapter 3 : Dream's End

**I've added an extra scene to chapter 1 and 2 check them out.**

**I do not own Naruto, If I did some abilities would have remained unique.**

Talk now – normal talk  
_What now_ – normal thoughts  
**Speak – biju, higher being talk**  
_**Listen**_** – biju, higher being thoughts**

**Chapter 3 : Dream's End**

The next few months seemed to fly for Naruto, his life followed a simple schedule that integrated his training into it, when he woke up he would do a few stretching exercises followed by washing and reading something, after that he would have breakfast with Yukimura and Sayaka were Yukimura would show him how to cook various kinds of food. Then he would practice how to properly read and write and would exercise it every day, Sayaka had been the one to teach him these things as she claimed Yukimura's hand writing was so terrible, that it all but resembled chicken scratches and that Yukimura could probably communicate with chickens using his handwriting. He would later play various games to help develop his mind with both Yukimura and Sayaka, he hadn't manage to win a single match but had been making steps towards not losing too badly, both Yukimura and Sayaka had encouraged him to try different strategies and analyze their matches for future reference, he had noticed that Yukimura favored more long term thinking and avoided battles unless necessary, he would set his pieces to strike at the right moment, it made every move he made seem random at first but later they would came together in a domino effect that would utterly crush him. Sayaka appeared to be more straightforward in her strategy and would often use a vicious attack, it took him a while to realize that while he was busy keeping his eyes on the assault, Sayaka would move her pieces from behind and deliver a blow he hadn't seen coming. When he asked about this Sayaka explained that while she preferred to execute a well planned attack, she would also have other plans running in the back, the main assault while it did have a chance to defeat the enemy and it did have support for it, wasn't the only one, often it was used as a distraction to move the other pieces and prepare to strike from another side when least expected, if the first attacked succeeded then she wouldn't need to use the other plans, if it didn't or it seemed to drag on to long she would enact the other plans, this was meant to teach him that there were more ways to win a battle and often you needed to look at things from a different angle to truly see things for what they were.

Around noon they would have lunch and Yukimura would again show him how to cook different kinds of food, Yukimura would often keep it simple for him, so he could have an easier time to make them himself later on, desert would often consist of different fresh fruits. After lunch he would have a period of rest, both Yukimura and Sayaka had told him that he needed to rest as he was still growing and until he was older he should sleep a few hours in the afternoon. When he awoke he would practice meditating, this to his joy, this was done in various parts of the house, in the flower garden, the forest, by the lake and even a brief return to the mountain top. Once done he would practice lying and trying to deceive them, the two then would tell him about the small mistakes he made and how to correct them, they would often show him examples amongst the two of them, on how to read body language and how to fake it as well, the fact that he was still a small child would give him an advantage as he could wear a mask of innocence to help him, small children would often lie to cover their mistakes hoping not to get caught but it was easy to tell when they were doing so, no one would ever expect to be outwitted by a small child, people's pride wouldn't allow them to accept such a possibility, often blinding them.

Towards the evening, Yukimura would teach him about gardening, both for flowers and food, later Yukimura would take him to the forest and teach him about the various fruits and plants that could be found there. Sayaka would then teach him about hunting, how to spot animal tracks, how to set traps and about pathfinding, unaware to him he was slowly developing a keen eye for details. Later they would have dinner, again he had never dreamt of some of the foods Yukimura could make, he had recently eaten something called rendang, that to him was the most delicious, juicy, tender and tasty meat that he had ever eaten. Yukimura would ask him if he could identify the specific taste of each dish he would eat, this one had tasted like an explosion of flavors that he couldn't even begin to identify. Yukimura had later told him that it had fine pieces of beef cooked in a mixture of coconut milk, lemongrass, chilies, garlic, shallots, turmeric leaves and a few more ingredients for hours on end, but the result was just incredible and well worth it to him.

After dinner he would rest and read a bit more, the activities that followed were some of the most fun for him, Sayaka and Yukimura would take him nature walking threw some of the lands around the house, other times they would play card games, do jigsaw puzzles, play board games, something he didn't even know existed, tea tasting, and stargazing, when Yukimura would tell him about the stars, and he would imagine what existed out amongst them. Finally before he went to sleep either or Yukimura or Sayaka would read him a bedtime story, and to his annoyance, they would stop reading right when it was more exciting and ask him to think on how things would continue, the next night they would continue with the story after he told them what he thought would happen. During all of the activities he would alternate between using only his right of left hand, whether eating, writing or playing games, the goal was to become ambidextrous, and this way he was slowly making progress. Only a few times had Naruto been left alone to use what he had learned, he didn't know that everything would change drastically soon enough.

When Naruto woke up he could feel that something was different, he didn't know what it was but he felt it in his gut, he briefly smelled something different in the house, it was faint, _some sort of baked sweet?_ Naruto noticed that he had been left a small breakfast on his desk, two sandwiches, a glass of juice and an orange, he shrugged, it had happened before, when both Yukimura and Sayaka had left him alone because they needed to deal with something and to help him learn to live by himself for his eventual return to Konoha. After eating he went threw his usual morning routine and after finishing it left for the kitchen to see if they had left him any lunch or if had to make one himself, to his surprise the kitchen door was locked, something that brought back painful memories of his life at the orphanage, however another door was unlocked in the distance one that hadn't been before. Naruto took in a deep breath and realised that the new smell was coming from that room, he made his way there carefully unsure of what to expect, when he entered the room he got a shock at what he saw.

"Surprise!" Both Yukimura and Sayaka shouted, both of the two had small colorful cone-shaped paper hats on their heads, light green with white dots for Yukimura and yellow with white for Sayaka. A giant banner with the words Happy Birthday Naruto was hanged in the room, various colored balloons were hanged threw out it as well. Naruto froze looking onward incredulously.

Sayaka slowly approached him. "Are you alright Naruto-kun?"

"I don't know what this is." He motioned to the birthday sign and decorations.

"It's a birthday party Naruto-kun." Sayaka told him with a smile on her face.

Naruto scratched his head and looked down at the floor. "I've only seen a few celebrating it at the orphanage, but I never took part in them."

Sayaka patted him on the head. "Naruto do you know how old you are?"

"Four" He looked at her puzzled.

"And how do you know that?"

"One of the caretakers would just tell me that another year passed and that I'm older now."

"I see" she said threw gritted teeth, "Well Naruto-kun a birthday is a day that comes once a year when a person celebrates the anniversary of their birth, sometimes a person's birthday is celebrated by a party where a specially made cake is presented." Yukimura made hand signs towards a cake on the table.

"But I get older even if I don't have a party right?" he asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Well yes."

"So why is it important?" the puzzled look never left his face.

Sayaka looked troubled unsure of how to answer. "Well you just celebrate the anniversary of your birth, it means that you are happy to be alive, friends and acquaintances usually give you gifts. For us, we usually celebrated it with a few friends, we don't expect any presents, myself and Yukimura just enjoyed going out and having a nice meal together or with friends, nothing really different than what we did at other times during the year."

"Well some of those parties ended up being a bit more wild." Yukimura pointed out.

Naruto still looked puzzled. "Why should I get gifts?"

"That is just the birthday tradition. People give gifts because they are happy that a person is born. It is a way of showing appreciation for someone."

Naruto scratched his chin in a thoughtful manner. "So if someone doesn't give me a gift they don't appreciation me?"

Sayaka waved her hands at him. "No, sometimes a person can't afford to get you a gift, but it doesn't mean that they don't appreciation or care about you."

"So why give gifts then?" Yukimura could all but hear Sayaka frustration, _kids are curious at that age, heck he usually asks questions about everything this shouldn't be too surprising. _

Sayaka cleared her throat. "We give gifts to people to show that we care and appreciate them, often it's more about how expensive that item is, that somehow. However you don't need to give people expensive gifts rather give them meaningful ones. It can be something hand made, a great home-cooked meal, a meal at a nice restaurant, walking somewhere without a plan or giving someone your full attention and time. It would be much better to give someone an experience rather than another material item. If we give people experiences, it will lead to stronger relationships and a more meaningful life. Do you understand Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded. "I think so, but when should I give them?"

"The best time to give a gift is anytime; give it for absolutely no reason at all. The worst time to give a gift is on someone's birthday or on some holiday, there is an expectation to give gifts at these times, and it's a hard expectation to live up to it. The best real reason to give a gift is to say, "I care about you" or "I love you" or "You are important to me" or "Thank you for being in my life." Our actions need to be in agreement with our feelings, and giving a gift today shows that every day is a special occasion, it shows that the people in your life are just as important to you today as they are on any holiday. We wanted for you to have at least one birthday party to show that we care."

"Thank you." A teary eyed Naruto told them looking down to conceal his tears.

"There's no need for that Naruto-kun." Sayaka knelt down and hugged him.

Yukimura chucked a bit. "Heck Naruto when you get older and have a girlfriend you may get a very special surprise for your birthday, that's not material and mind blowing experience" Yukimura's smirked "for good and bad."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked while he wiped his tears.

"Just some grown up thoughts that someone should have kept to himself." Sayaka placed her hands on Naruto's ears. "I remember you rather enjoyed a certain birthday."

Yukimura looked at her with a deadpan expression. "It ended with hip dislocation and back problems for quite a while."

"And yet you had a shit eating grin on your face for months on end."

Yukimura began to giggle. "Heh, heh, yeah. His face took a dreamy look. That was great, injuries be damned."

Sayaka took her hands off Naruto's ears and took his hand. "How about we eat some cake Naruto-kun?"

"Hai!" Naruto followed Sayaka who aided him on getting on a chair near the table, the cake as Naruto could see was round with white whip cream and used chocolate whip cream to write a small dedication to him writing happy birthday Naruto, the sides of the cake had a floral arrangement and on top between the letters it was studded with five lit candles, each of a different color. "So what do I do now?"

"Well first." Sayaka made a hand sign and Naruto could hear music playing, Sayaka went next to Yukimura and both began to sing happy birthday to you for several minutes. After they finished Sayaka went next to Naruto and took a seat near him. "Usually the person being honored is given the first piece of cake. But first the celebrated person will usually make a silent wish and attempt to blow out the candles in one breath; if successful, a tradition holds that the wish will be granted but the wish must be kept secret or it won't come true."

Naruto breathed in then closing his eyes and making his wish and then blew as hard as he could, when he opened his eyes he saw that he was able to blow out all the candles.

"Congratulations!" They both told him with smiles on their faces.

"Now onto the eating!" Yukimura cut the cake and gave the first slice to Naruto, then one for Sayaka and finally for himself.

Naruto used his spoon and stopped for a moment reminding himself to use manners before he used his spoon to eat his slice of cake, as soon as his tongue touched the cake his toungue he was assaulted with new tastes, the cake had an elastic texture and was soaked with flavored syrup or some sort of liqueur, had butter cream frosting, and he could taste a fruit mixed in as well, _apricot!, _he realized, he liked the fruit and was sad when he found out that it wasn't native to the Elemental Nations and that once he returned to Konoha he wouldn't be able to eat it anymore. "Can I have another slice?"

Sayaka gave him a small look. "How do you say it?"

"Can I please have another slice of cake"

Sayaka nodded and continued in a harsher tone of voice. "Good, yes you may, but just one more, you can't be too full for what we have planned for later."

Naruto pouted before asking. "Will it be like sledding?"

Sayaka had a thoughtful look on her face for a moment. "It will definitely be something new Naruto-kun."

"I can't wait!" Naruto stated in an enthusiastic tone of voice. Sayaka gently ruffled his hair and he began to eat with new gusto to finish quickly.

"Naruto-kun don't rush and chew your food properly." Sayaka reprimanded him.

"Hai"

Neither of the two noticed the slight look of sadness that crossed Yukimura's face. The sun was shining and its rays entered threw the kitchen windows catching both Sayaka and Naruto, it seemed to accentuate her pale skin and give it a porcelain look, her scarlet hair seemed to be on fire, both her and Naruto were eating and smiling. _I can almost see this happening back home, perhaps, perhaps if I had remained in my world after she returned we could have had something like this, a few little knuckleheads of our own and our own house. I hope she had something like this with someone._ A smile began to spread on Yukimura's face at that thought.

"Are you alright?" Sayaka asked giving him a concerned look.

"Yes, I am, don't worry." He responded in a normal tone, his face now with a more serene expression.

"But you haven't eaten your cake!" Naruto told him pointing at his plate.

Yukimura laughed and scratched the back of his head. "My mistake, I just got lost in my own thoughts, now it's time to finish this though so we can head out to our destination."

"Are you sure you're fine?" Naruto asked.

"My my doesn't someone have a keen eye?" he laughed gently. "Yes don't worry about it, finish up eating then go and put on a pair of short pants, you won't need any shoes, oh and get another pair of short pants and a T-shirt for back up."

Naruto gave him a puzzled look. "Ok." As soon as Naruto finished he took his plate to the sink intending on washing it until Sayaka stopped him.

"Don't worry about that today Naruto-kun, go get your cloths."

"Hai"

"So what was that about?" She asked looking at Yukimura.

"Nothing, don't worry about it, I just remembered that some things are worth sacrificing for."

Sayaka raised an eyebrow. "Oh and what brought this on, do tell."

"It's ... oh look at the time Naruto's ready to go." In an instant, Yukimura dissipated from the kitchen leaving Sayaka alone in it.

"Cute, but I know where you live." A moment later Sayaka disappeared from the kitchen as well.

* * *

As soon as Naruto got to his room he changed his pants for a pair of orange short pants, took out a dark green colored pair and a grey T-shirt, he waited for a moment before he realized that neither had told him whether to return to the kitchen or not, he shrugged and made his way towards the door. When Naruto opened the door light seemed to have assaulted him, before his eyes became accustomed to the light, he blinked and looked on to the sight in front of him. The door now lead to a beach, a bit in the distance he could see both Yukimura and Sayaka under neath a beach umbrella. Naruto took a deep breath and stepped threw the door, his feet soon touched the sand and he could feel it under his bare feet, he wiggled his fingers a bit in the sand feeling it's texture, at first it felt like sugar to him, he touched it with his fingers it felt soft and cool, the sun ray's softly caressed his cheeks, he could hear the waves crashing onto the shore and could smell the salt from the ocean. He walked over to where Yukimura and Sayaka were waiting for him under a beach umbrella. When he got closer he saw that Sayaka was wearing a two piece black bikini and Yukimura wore a pair of dark blue short pants with white lines making cubes on them and a part of their sides white as well. A picnic basket and a few towels were under the umbrella as well.

"What do you think Naruto?" Yukimura asked both hands where on his own sides.

"Is this really the beach?" Naruto asked looking at the ocean waves.

"It's as real as it can be here." Yukimura responded looking at the ocean.

"It looks awesome!" Naruto yelled pumping his fist in the air.

"Heh" Yukimura ruffled his hair. "That it does."

Naruto placed his clothes next to the towels and then ran towards the water but as soon as he placed a foot in the water he stopped when he saw something coming out of the water. The small creature was grey, had several small legs, it was covered with a thick exoskeleton and had a single pair of claws, one larger than the other. Naruto brought a finger towards it and the creature snapped its large claw at him. In the blink of an eye Naruto ran away from the water and hid behind Sayaka's legs, both Sayaka and Yukimura laughed, Naruto poked his head out from behind them and asked. "What is that thing?"

"That is a crab, the good kind, not like some of the other kind you can get. Ugh" Yukimura felt the air leaving his lungs as Sayaka elbowed him in the stomach.

"There are bad crabs?" Naruto asked curiously.

"He" Sayaka pointed at Yukimura "he will explain it later when you are older Naruto-kun."

"Yeah" Yukimura struggled for breath, "there are, don't worry we'll talk about it when I give you the talk, about the birds and the bees and the blow up dolls. Ughh" Yukimura felt the air leaving his lungs again and fell down as Sayaka elbowed him in the stomach once more.

"Let's go into the water Naruto-kun, Sayaka began with a warm smile on her face that usually spelt trouble for someone."Yukimura want's to think a bit about talking of certain inappropriate subjects. Don't you?"

Yukimura managed a small "Yeah" between breaths

Naruto never imagined the water ocean could feel as warm and amazing as it did, he spent the next few hours playing in the water, Sayaka and Yukimura taught him how to swim, Sayaka would go out in the distance and ask him to swim towards her while Yukimura stayed behind him to help him in case he had trouble. After that the three of them built sand castles together and when Yukimura fell asleep he and Sayaka buried him in the sand. Something that Naruto would never forget was when Sayaka took him surfing, words could not describe the euphoria that surfing provided to him, it made him feel alive, and yet words still couldn't describe the full absolutely magical and romantic feeling of riding the wave, it was a breathless experience, going up and down on the surface of the water and feeling_ like he was right in the middle of nature, feeling the air, hearing the break of the wave as water sprayed around him,_ just an unlimited power under his feet and to be in harmony with the ocean; it was just the most beautiful thing he every did, he doubted we would ever forget his first wave ride.

He had tried to learn to surf by himself but hadn't managed to succeed at it and after a few failed attempts Yukimura took him out of the water and taught him how to fly a kite so he could rest and get his mind of his failed attempts. Naruto and Yukimura sitting near the water watching Sayaka ride a wave and waving them. "She's really good at it"

"Yes, she is, I think it's something about basic sense of balance and the core strength of someone familiar with planks**.**" Yukimura had a smile on his face.

Naruto nodded. "It's still awesome."

"Yep" Yukimura ruffled Naruto's hair. "Listen I know I told you this before but it's worth repeating," Naruto looked at him, "whatever you do, enjoy it to the fullest, that's the secret of life."

"Hai!"

Yukimura smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair again. "I'll go prepare the food, just relax alright."

Naruto nodded and stood listening to the gentle sound of the waves, he found them soothing, he didn't know when he fell asleep, Sayaka would later wake him up when it was time to eat. That night after he and Sayaka went for a trip around the beach when they returned Yukimura had prepared a bonfire and the two took turns telling stories, Yukimura told him old tales about the stars while showing him the constellations on the night sky. Naruto was sitting near Yukimura with a blanket wrapped around him.

"the Sun recalls Earth and her clever and foolish men and kind and magical women, and then it returns to us. Or perhaps it is only — as some say — that it remembers the taste of the bait."

"Well, that was an interesting story." Sayaka commented as she threw another log into the fire.

"I try." Both noticed how Naruto had already fallen asleep. "You know it would have been a more interesting day if we showed him some of the things that lurked in the ocean."

"Oh?" Sayaka asked curiously. "You still think it would have been a good idea to go with that?"

Yukimura nodded. "Well yeah, I can still picture it, in the distance whales jumping out of the ocean, then dolphins a bit closer to the shore, then both jumping out and sharks jumping in between them, add some crabs with monocles, top hats and canes dancing near the shore." Yukimura's face took a dreamy look. "It would have been legendary."

Sayaka simply looked at him with a what did you smoke expression on her face, she gently rubbed her forehead. "And you think that wouldn't have terrified him?"

Yukimura scoffed. "No of course not if I wanted to terrify him I would have shown him a sharktopus, those things are messed up."

Sayaka sighed. "Perhaps another time you could do so, and give him nightmare fuel for years to come. Now though we should take him back home."

"Yeah" Yukimura gently took Naruto into his arms and lifted him up, they both stopped after walking a few feet from the fire, their eyes took on a small barely discernable yellow glow that faded quickly. "It appears some of our projects are showing results."

Sayaka nodded. "Indeed, will you devote your full attention to it?"

"Yes" Yukimura handed Naruto to Sayaka and disapeared the next instant.

Sayaka walked a few more steps before a door appeared, she opened it and stepped threw arriving in Naruto's room, where she placed him on the bed and tucked him in. When she was about to leave she heard Naruto whisper in a sleepy tone of voice. "I wish I never leave this place." Sayka made her way to Naruot and kissed him on the forehead. _I'm sorry Naruto-kun but some things must end. _When Sayaka stepped out of the room in the blue dimmed hallway she saw Yukimura waiting for her with a strange look on his face. "Did you learn anything interesting?"

Yukimura nodded and raised his hands towards her. "It was just a brief glimpse but, have a look."

Sayaka touched his arms her eyes flashed yellow for a moment, her face took a worried look "I see, this is most concerning."

"True, one thing appears certain" his voice took a serious tone "war is coming to the Elemental Nations. We will need to increase his training, I know we planned on starting on the physical a bit later but with this new development it's best we start now."

Sayaka's face now looked made of steel. "I take it we will not interfere to much with the war then?"

"No" Yukimura shook his head "with this we have a baseline to work with, and war presents its own" Yukimura looked for the appropriate words "interesting oppuortunities."

Sayaka scowled "I remember a time when such a notion would have horrified you."

Yukimura furrowed his eyebrows. "And I remember a time when I didn't kill heroes to have their nations join me."

"You know what I meant." Sayaka replied.

"I know it's..." Yukimura's shoulders sagged.

Sayaka began in a conciliatory tone and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Your power is not what it once was, and you are afraid that if you interfere too much things will spiral out of control."

Yukimura didn't say anything.

"You know you can lean on me." Sayaka told him in a warm tone looking him in the eye.

Yukimura smiled. "Isn't that like leaning on myself?"

"Semantics" Sayaka waved one of her hands in front of him.

Yukimura laughed a bit, "I need that thank you."

Sayaka gave a warm smile. "Any time, now I take it we will greatly accelerate things on the other fronts as well."

"Yes, we should discuss that and go over his training one more time."

"Agreed"

Both disappeared in from the hallway.

The next day at breakfast Naruto noticed how things seemed tense for some reason, he hoped it was just a test for him to pick up on things and not something serious. "Ano can I ask something?"

"Of course, Naruto-kun."

"Have I been here a long time? I can't don't even know the month I came here."

Yukimura had a small thoughtful look on his face as if calculating something. "Not long, your birthday was near when you came here. Roughly two weeks will have passed outside when you leave this place."

"Do I have to leave this place?" Naruto asked sadly.

"Yes, we said it before but staying too long in a god's realm can be harmful to you if you're still alive."

"So if I'm not alive I could stay?" he asked in a slightly optimistic tone.

"Don't you dare think of such a thing!" Sayaka yelled and slammed her hands on the table.

"Naruto even if you die, your soul would go to a different place, I don't have an afterlife nor do I plan on creating one. With that seal on you there are chances that you would end up in a afterlife of the shinigami's choosing or if you're lucky you'd go to the great unknown."

"It's just... this place is much better that the place where I came from."

Sayaka shook Naruto once before she hugged him tightly and looked him directly in the eyes. "Listen to me it doesn't matter how shit things may look you just have to keep on living and keep on fighting eventually things will change! Promise me you woun't think about such things in the future!"

"I promise" Naruto said threw tears. Sayaka hugged him once more and the two stayed that way for several minutes, Naruto felt Yukimura's hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. After a few minutes the two broke the hug but Sayaka kept him close to her and began to wipe his tears, afterwards he asked. "What's the great unknown?"

Yukimura who had taken a seat at the table answered. "That's what the original afterlife is called and both humans and gods ended up there and still do if they don't belong to one of the religions whos god is still alive and that have their own afterlifes."

"What's it like?" he asked rubbing his eyes.

Yukimura shrugged his shoulder. "No one knows, people haven't returned from there, we call it the great unknown because of that."

"Oh."

"Now onto less depressing things, we've decided to teach a few more things, some are the cool kind you wanted."

"Really?" He asked in a hopeful tone.

"Yes" Yukimura nodded "now go change into some more flexible clothes and then head over to the dojo, it's the eighth door on your left after you leave your room."

"Alright!" Naruto quickly left the room.

The room was quiet for a few moments before Yukimura spoke. "That was more depressing than I expected."

"He has a better life here what did you expect?" Sayaka countered.

Yukimura sighed. "Yes I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised" his face took a dark look "I remember the Tower and having similar thoughts at one point."

Sayaka scowled "Somethings are better left buried in the past, now we should go as well."

* * *

The wooden dojo Naruto found himself in he had a number of unusual design features, including glass-doored walls on two sides that opened onto gardens, deep skylights and a specially sprung wooden floor, the lustrous wood used in the dojo was fragrant and darkly. Naruto sat cross-legged on the floor with Sayaka and Yukimura in front of him wearing white karate gi with black belts.

"Now Naruto what we will begin to teach you here are both martial arts and sword fighting"

"Can I use two swords?" Naruto asked hurriedly.

Both Yukimura and Sayaka raised an eyebrow. Yukimura asked. "That seems oddly specific, any reason?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Um no, it would just be cool, and useful, wouldn't two swords be better than one?"

Sayaka rubbed her chin. "Actually that can work, we already planned to teach you how to handle two swords as well, but if you're sure want to learn to use two swords full time you must know that it will be a long and hard road."

"I'm sure of it." Naruto told them in a firm tone.

Sayaka nodded and had a proud smile on her face. "Well then a small history lesson then", she cleared her throat "since bladed weapons were invented, people have tried to use more than just one in combat. Simple math made this innovation for them. If one sword was good, two must be better." Naruto nodded and smiled. "Unfortunately, this is not always the case." Naruto's face dropped. "Very often, a sword is not easy to use in tandem with another. Many require more concentration, dexterity, or strength to use two swords." Naruto's face fell some more. "Worse yet, the fighting forms often do not support the use of ambidextrous fighting; the idea has been scoffed at as inefficient or wasteful considering the small percentage of the population capable of using both hands equally." Naruto's face fell even more, before he saw Sayaka wink at him and smile. "So rose Jar'Kai, to fill the needs of those people who wished to use two swords at the same time effectively." Naruto slowly began to smile as well and Sayaka continued. "Jar'Kai translates into 'Two Swords', but the more recent iterations of the form makes use of more than just swords. Specialists and masters of the form will often make strides to modify the techniques to accommodate other tools of violence. Known Jar'Kai techniques and maneuvers include the "Rising Whirlwind", which consisted of a duelist swinging his blades about his body, creating a "whirlwind" of deadly attacks" Naruto had an awed look on his face "and the "Twin Strike", in which both blades were swung in an arc towards the opponent in a deadly power attack." Now Naruto was just giddy "A third trait worthy of note is that Jar'Kai practitioners were often overly reliant on their weapons and bladework, leaving their abilities in other areas undeveloped." His smile dropped a bit "However, this weakness was hardly absolute, as some duelists possessed the physical strength to block power attacks with only one arm." And then the smile returned in full force. "Despite the advantages offered, Jar'Kai is not without its drawbacks. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, he had an idea of what could follow "Firstly, as both hands held individual swords, two-handed blows were impossible, and the duelist was unable to put all his or her weight behind blocks, weakening the defensive capabilities. Thusly, an enemy with a single hilt could simply assault a Jar'Kai practitioner's defense with brute force, battering away until the dual-blade duelist's guard gave way."

Naruto continued to furrow his eyebrows in thoughtful manner before he spoke. "So it has its ups and downs, just like everything else and will require serious work, maybe a bit more than a regular one handed sword. But I've already started training to become ambidextrous so I've already take the first step on the path."

Sayaka nodded gave him a proud smile. "Yes, exactly, however we do have a small something that will aid you."

Naruto perked up and smiled. "Is it a sword? Or two? Are they cool?"

Sayaka laughed a bit and waved a hand, _it's good that he still has this innocence_ "no, nothing like that" Naruto pouted "in many ways it's even better."

"Really what is it?"

"It's a fighting style"

Naruto thought about her words for a moment "It is tied to fighting with two swords"

Sayaka gave him another small smile and head node "The Niman Form, also known as The Moderation Form, and the diplomat's form. This fighting style is a hybrid martial art created by effectively combining elements of different sword forms into a single, generalized form. Niman balances out between the various specializations of other forms, covering many of the basic moves, but focusing on overall moderation. This resulted in a fighting style that lacks a significant advantage" Naruto furrowed his eyebrows at hearing this relaxed when he heard the next part, deciding to listen until she finished her explanation "but also lacking any serious drawbacks, and thereby not leaving adherents as exposed as some of the more aggressive or specialized forms. Overall, Niman has a fairly relaxed focus on blade work, designed as a simple, easily mastered fighting form for fighters who preferred to devote most of their time to study and diplomacy. Despite this, it can be absolutely deadly in the hands of a skilled practitioner, also as Niman is developed from two pre-existing martial arts fighting forms that both emphasized the use of dual-blades, it provided a firm foundation for duelists looking to study into such practices. Ultimately, Niman's success in combat is dependent on a practitioner's intuition and creativity in combat, rather than the rote responses common to other forms."

Naruto thought about she said for a moment longer before he burst out "It sounds great! You want me to learn this form because it could also allow me to learn other things as well seeing as how it's not as intensive."

Both Sayaka and Yukimura looked surprised but pleased and Yukimura answered him. "That….is correct, oh my, hasn't someone has gotten a bit wiser." Naruto rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.

Sayaka continued. "We will also be adding Sokan to the mix for maximum efficiency."

"What is that?" Naruto asked looking at her.

Sayaka began in a teacher like manner. "Sokan is a principle of sword fighting, rather than a true form, the teaching revolves around using the environment itself to gain a tactical advantage in combat. Sokan involves maneuvering so that swift strokes of the sword can be aimed towards the opponent's vital areas, using quick tumbles, jumps, and movements. Combatants make use of large amounts of terrain, trying to maneuver their opponents into vulnerable areas during the course of battles that involve Sokan techniques. This technique allows for great speed and mobility and leaves no openings in one's defense."

"It sounds awesome!"

"Indeed, tiying those two together will greatly aid you with your sword skill."

Yukimura stepped took a step forward. "Now for the close unarmed martial arts, you'll have two primary styles mixed with a few others."

"Two? Really?"

"Yes, now the first is the K'tara style, this is basically the maximization of damage to the opponent while minimizing the amount of noise created by an attack. Thus, much of the K'tara martial art is focused on short, quick motions, perfect for shinobi who are supposed to fight in the shadows. People trained in the use of the K'tara arts can disarm an opponent and render them unconscious in a few swift motions, thereby attracting as little attention as possible. The most skilled of practitioners are taught an advanced form known as the Dha'Tracyn whereby they could maximize their firing efficiency up to a staggering 120%, but considering that there are no weapons like that here we will change a few things to try and make it compatible with kunais and shurikens. The mastery of K'tara and the sub-form Dha'Tracyn can make an individual into a highly efficient assassin. Augmented with chakra there should be almost no limits to what can be achieved."

Naruto had a dreamy look on his face. "It sounds so cool."

"That it does, now the next one has a longer description so bare with it" Yukimura cleared his throat "The second one is the Echani martial art, an unarmed combat discipline developed by the Echani. The moves of the art are fluent and the practitioner focuses on using the motion and kinetic energy of the attacker and redirecting the force of the attack rather than opposing it head-on. This requires very little physical strength as the practitioner guides the attacker's momentum using entering and turning movements. The techniques of Echani Martial Art are completed with various throws or joint locks. Echani Martial Art can be categorized under the general umbrella of grappling arts. Tradition dictated that combatants usually make no use of armor, weapons or other techniques, as the art is focused on mastering the body itself as a weapon. Echani culture held the belief that combat was the only means to truly know someone, a pure form of expression where words were swept away, allowing for action to reveal the true nature of the people involved. Their duels were rituals, and it was important to follow etiquette, for that would allow them to read each others' stance and fight accordingly. In this manner, battle was seen as a form of communication similar to art. Exposing emotions in combat, however, made the duel a personal thing; engaging in repeated sessions was a courtship of sorts, in which one's favors were won through superior fighting prowess. Although it was not forbidden to teach Echani Martial Art to non-Echani it was almost unheard of and very frowned upon."

"It sounds interesting, I think" Naruto struggled to find his words "you want me to learn it because I'm still young and can't do more physical exercises yet."

Both Yukimura and Sayaka gave him proud smiles. "Exactly, teaching you this style is ideal as you are young and can not yet learn the more physically demanding styles, add the fact that while here your body isn't getting any activity it makes this style all the more useful."

Seeing the look on Naruto's face Yukimura asked. Is there something else you want to say?

"It's about the other parts related to the style, I'm guessing you want me to know the style's history and not just the fighting part." Naruto finished with a thoughtful look on his face.

Sayaka was the one who answered "That is correct and holds true for other styles as well, it's important to understand where your style came from, the foundation of it, the philosophy and concept of why it was developed in the first place."

Naruto gave her an understanding nod and Yukimura continued.

"Now the Echani martial art is based on three tiers of ascension and each tier is based on a foundation, a mental, spiritual and philosophical skill that the practitioner must master before moving on to the next tier. Training in the Echani martial art is mental as well as physical, emphasizing the ability to relax the mind and body even under the stress of dangerous situations. This is necessary to enable the practitioner to perform the bold enter-and-blend movements that underlie Echani Martial Art techniques, wherein an attack is met with confidence and directness. As a martial art concerned not only with fighting proficiency but also with the betterment of daily life, this mental aspect is of key importance to practitioners and common Echani alike. Echani children, around the age of 5, begin by learning the foundations of the first tier, Honor. They are taught the importance of honor both in and out of combat. Honor was essential to the life of an Echani. Once the children showed advanced proficiency of the first foundation, they would be elevated to the first tier, Pupil. It is during this stage that they would learn the base forms of Echani Art, or Echani martial arts, as well as the foundation of the second tier, Loyalty. Loyalty was key to the Echani people, it was what kept them together, no matter what the hardship. Loyalty to their elders, to their friends, to their family, and most importantly to their people, although some progressed quicker than others, the normal age youths elevated to the second tier was 16."

Naruto looked surprised at hearing the last part. "What but that's really old isn't it?"

"Perhaps but with some changes to it a few steps can be eliminated, you aren't an Echani and we won't make into one thus a few parts will be cut and considering the time difference here you can advance more quickly."

"What were they like?" Naruto asked curiously.

Yukimura gave him a bitter smile. "They were a great people when I left, much of their culture and history is tied to their martial arts, their mentality can be seen in their martial arts as well. Some of their values reminded me of clan from this world." He cleared his throat "The second tier, Warrior, is the most difficult. Many Echani would fail to surpass the tier. During this tier, youths would begin a rigorous training schedule, as well as beginning to learn the advanced forms of Echani Art. They would also begin to learn the foundation of the third and final tier, Justice. Justice was what an Echani strived for. Crime was rare in Echani Society, mainly due to this foundation. The Echani strived for Justice, believing it was what kept peace and serenity throughout their people. It was this that gave way to their seemingly gentle nature. The average age, of an Echani, when he passed on to the third tier was 30. The third and last tier is that of the Artist. If one passed to the third tier, he could begin a more specialized training, as well as learning the Hidden Arts of Echani Art. Now although tradition dictated that Echani Martial Arts practitioners made no use weapons, as the art was focused on mastering the body itself as a weapon, there were some in Echani Society that were allowed to use weapons, namely the Fire dancers. The Echani Fire dancers were martial artists who combined Echani Martial Art techniques with exotic weapons; the usage of the two together almost seemed like a dance. However, not every Echani could become a Fire dancer, those chosen and trained since wielding the burning Ritual Brand and performing the Dance of Flames required great agility and acrobatic skills. The Fire dancers had their own tires as well, namely Ember, Disciple and Fire Lord. As stated, the Echani Fire dancers made use of Ritual Brands, double-bladed swords with burning or heated blades used in ritual combat. When used, the Fire dancers would manipulate the weapons in complex weaving patterns that were so graceful they were more similar to dance than to combat. This caused severe burn wounds to enemies struck by the weapon.

Naruto looked curious before he asked. "So I could learn it that and use it with my two swords right."

"It depends on your agility and acrobatic skill; we can try to include some of the basic training of the style in with your general sword training to see if it can work."

"The last two styles are something we want to mix into your first two styles, the first being the **Verdanaian** strikes that are by and large reactionary, they involve intercepting an opponent's strikes, the practitioner will draw the opponent in, and let the kinetic energy from their opponent's attacks 'flow through' to their own fist, effectively turning their own attack against them. As a defensive art, this art is taught to mobilize from any stance, standing or sitting."

"So I don't need to be very strong to use this one either and it can be worked into almost everything?"

"Exactly Naruto-kun, now other one is called Teräs Käsi, meaning 'Steel Hand', it is an unarmed martial art that was invented ages ago, the art is brutal, effective, and adaptive, the art is brutally efficient, teaching its students how to step inside attacks to avoid damage while delivering viciously effective strikes themselves. The flexibility and strength required of Teräs Käsi permits attacks that would otherwise be unreasonable, an example is the famed Death Weave, a series of blows that stuns, then paralyzes, incapacitates, and finally ends the target's life. Open hand, closed fist, elbow smashes, knees, kicks, headbutts and body checks, Teräs Käsi uses all of the body as a weapon, even if in unorthodox ways." Naruto giggled like a school girl at hearing that. "The art relies heavily on strikes to intercept attacking weapon hands, often with open hand to help deflect weaponry from their opponent's target. Now while this martial art requires more strength than the other styles but it does have its advantages. Lastly during your training you will also learn how to fight while blind. "

"They all sound awesome. But I thought that I would learn something with more punches and kicks and breaking threw stuff."

Sayaka placed a finger on one of her cheeks "Well Broken Gate is an ancient martial art, the style focuses on strong upper-body strikes powered by both muscle and body movement, as well as powerful knee strikes and stomping kicks. Defense relies primarily on avoiding or withstanding attacks. Broken Gate is characterized by hard upper-body strikes and stomping kicks. The attacks are designed to penetrate an opponent's guard through the sheer level of damage inflicted; the art's name was taken from a story of the first Master, Jae Dal, who reputedly smashed open a meter-thick wooden gate with one blow of his fist. Because of the nature of the strikes, Broken Gate practitioners tend to avoid secondary blocks, and train themselves to dodge or simply absorb attacks. Lower-level students tend to dodge more, while more experienced fighters could shrug off most strikes. Masters of Broken Gate were legendary for their resilience, able to brush away even the fiercest of unarmed blows."

Naruto was all but drooling. "Yeah something like that, it sounds awesome."

"Well it does indeed sound great, it does have its drawbacks, it's mostly a double edged sword even more so with your condition."

"My condition?" Naruto asked puzzled.

Yukimura answered him. "My chakra is slowly being purified by the seal holding my chakra and then added to you."

"Can we stop the seal from doing that?" Naruto asked in a serious tone.

"Why would you ever want that?" Yukimura questioned curiously.

"Because I'm stealing from you, I don't want that." Naruto responded by crossing his arms.

Yukimura gave a smile and then ruffled his hair getting a pout from Naruto. "While I appreciate the feeling Naruto, I have plenty of chakra to spare so don't worry about it."

"Really?" he asked looking up at him.

"Really, beside's it's doing more good with you now," seeing his puzzled look he continued. "It will slowly but steadily increase your chakra reserves, naturally adding to it; this will in turn give you more chakra, stamina, a longer life span and increased healing."

"That sounds good, is anyone with a lot of chakra like that."

"Not to your level no."

"So why then and what's wrong with it?"

"The key here is potency" Yukimura began rising a finger "my chakra is a lot more potent, the seal purifies it of the harmful parts but it doesn't change the potency. Now because the seal does this and adds the purified chakra to your reserves making it a part of you, some of your natural attributes will be increased, which is a good thing for the most part. Now this would make you an excellent front line fighter and well geared towards a martial art like Broken Gate. The problem is that you can still draw on my chakra at an unconciuous level, and while you are a lot more resistant to it then others my chakra will still do damage to your body and then heal it afterwards at a fast tempo, while this sounds great, the damage is never actually fully healed, at some level your body will still be injured and stay that way permanently, it will slowly break you down from the inside out. While small uses of it are possible and the purified chakra helps to make you more resistant to the other kind, it's still very dangerous to use. And with a fighting style that requires you to take damage rather than avoid it..." Yukimura let Naruto finish his train of thought.

"I could end up relying on it and slowly killing myself." Naruto spoke wide eyed.

"Yes. I don't know if you will ever be able to fully control nine tails of my chakra, we will train you in using it for emergency situations, but with my eventual departure."

Naruto smacked one of his fists into his own hand, like he had just had an epiphany. "You want me to be ready for that time! So after you leave I will still be able to fight without relying on it, Broken Gate could have me growing to rely on your chakra rather than my own!"

"Precissly, there's also the fact that a style like that will put a strain on your body and at old age the effects of using it will be even worse, we want you to be prepared for when we will eventually Naruto-kun."

"You'll still leave one day." He told them in a sad tone.

"All things must eventually come to an end Naruto, just like life begins so must it end, its what makes life so great, because it is finite, our departure is not for years but it will happen" Yukimura got down on one knee and placed a hand on Naruto's head "what we can do is cherish the time we have together and remember it fondly. We will always live on here" Yukimura placed his hand over Naruto's heart "and be by your side."

A few minutes after he calmed down Naruto asked. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Will you ever die, if you're a god?" Naruto asked looking at Yukimura.

Yukimura sighed. "I hope so, trust me when I say it that living so long as I have is a curse far worse than you can ever imagine."

"Is it that bad?"

"Yes, far worse, I have filled cemeteries with the friends I have buried, I lived and buried a friend seventeenth descendent, and yet I kept living, even with everything changing around me I kept on living and stayed constant. Or at least I diluted myself into thinking such a thing, I changed slowly and become more jagged losing parts of myself, my feelings towards humans after my ascension to godhood reflected this in a perfect way."

"What was it?"

"That they were insects"

"What?" Naruto asked puzzled.

Yukimura looked at the floor. "When you notice an insect on the ground, do you stop to consider it a fool? The life of an insect is so beneath you that it would be a waste of your time to even consider judging it. I was so damn high that looking down at the humans seemed all but beneath my attention. The only reason I sent small parts of myself to other worlds was for them to learn of how the gods acted so I could know who to kill and who to let live. Often those parts of me ended up learning about the world's culture, history, their fighting styles, some ended up as important figures, all that once they returned to me I didn't bother with, it seemed trivial. One thing that I am grateful for is that with my fall I have regained some of my original personality, I am more grounded now than before."

"What will you do after you leave?"

Yukimura smiled."Visit a few old places that were dear to my heart and see a few new ones. "

"You won't try to find out what happened to you?" Naruto asked his eyebrows furrowed.

Yukimura waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Eventually I will attempt to do so, but if that something defeated me at my old level of power going after it right away would be foolhardy. I hope to discover if whatever weakened me has hostile intentions or not, and I will make my judgement then."

"So you woun't fight other gods anymore life you did before?"

Yukimura was silent for a few moments and Naruto looked towards Sayaka who had troubled look on her face. "I don't know if I did the right thing the first time around when I went after some of the gods, a few were evil but I don't know if killing them like I did was the right thing. For a few their defeat were inevitable I just took their lives sooner than they would have lost them, perhaps it would have been better to allow the people of those worlds to sort things out. It's just something else that I see in a different light enough of this talk, let's talk a bit more of your training then start things."

"Hai."

"We'll be training you a bit in how speak to a person, this combined with your keen eye and ability to read body language will allow you to be more persuasive, better haggle with merchants and give you a small edge with diplomacy. Next is how to sneak, here is where you will learn how to have a muffled movement, pickpockets and lock pick."

Sayaka began. "We did want to teach you on how to gain political pull, lead people and govern estates, but that will have to wait a bit."

Yukimura placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "One thing we want you to think about during the last few months of your stay here Naruto is that of a goal or a purpose for yourself."

Naruto began in an unsteady tone. "I don't really know what I want."

"It's alright, just think about it."

Naruto nodded. "Ok, after I leave will I be able to return to this place?"

"Yes, only in your sleep at first, and only once in a while, not every night, with your permission I can create a connection to allow us to walk after you return, it won't be all time, but it would allow us to talk in some cases."

Naruto's face seemed to brighten. "That would be great, why didn't you do it earlier?"

"I wanted your permission."

"Please do it, you have my permission." Naruto told him in a fierce tone of voice.

Yukimura nodded. "Very well thank you, now the other good news is that we will create a portal to my god realm in Konoha for you to come here with your physical body as well, though with similar conditions of not staying too long."

"Really?" Naruto began in a hopeful tone. "That would be awesome"

"Yeah it will be pretty kick ass, it will also help with your training a lot"

"Now the last thing is something we will work on full time"

"What?" Naruto asked curiously.

"A plan to help you live while in Konoha without us"

Naruto scowled."With all those people who don't like me"

"Yes, being able to deceive them will be critical, some may very well try to manipulate you"

"Like the Hokage?" What little he cared about the man had vanished in the past months.

Both Yukimura and Sayaka help back a scowl though their faces took a disgusted look. "Yes, you can't attract too much attention and you will need to be able to look at people words and actions and see if you can find any underline reasons that they may have. You will have to use some of the skills and things we have already taught you, the foods I showed you how to cook, gathering fruits and hunting. We will teach a few more skills to help you survive, I know this is a lot for you."

"I can do it." He told them in a fierce voice.

Yukimura smiled. "I know you can," He patted Naruto on the head "I'm proud of you."

"Really?" he asked in a hopeful tone of voice.

"Damn straight. We both are Naruto-kun." Sayaka gave him a proud smile before she ruffled his hair with both hands causing Naruto to pout.

"Now, let's begin."

* * *

The next months Naruto would later call a pleasant hell, his training greatly increased in all fields, from making food to hunting, skinning an animal and making use of its fur, to his martial arts and sword training. Sayaka had taken great care to help him when he first killed an animal and later skinned it, it wasn't something he liked doing but Sayaka had been there to explain why it need to be done and a shoulder for him to cry on, she hugged him and told him it was alright, the part with killing animals, even if they weren't real had taken him longer to comes to terms with. Yukimura and Sayaka wanted him to learn skills that would help him survive and live a good life without them, and wanted him to learn as many skills as he could. He enjoyed it when Yukimura taught him how to make certain drinks and sweets with rather simple things that he could use and later eat or sell.

Naruto was currently in the garden as he enjoyed the atmosphere of the place, the scent from the different flowers mixed to produce a sweet aroma, the trees provided shadows from the sun's rays, he was meditating and remembering the lessons Yukimura and Sayaka had taught him. The latest lessons came flooding back to him with memories from his training. _While I play the fool my true self must be stronger, better and must only be reveled to the people I trust, mixing the two sides can be done to help slowly ease the transition for when the time comes._

A memory of Yukimura flashed threw his mind, this after he had trained more in reading people and masking his own body language.

"I have talked about this before but and an important part of your training is learning to wear a mask, to be able to deceive people on more than just one level. Act like a fool, as a fool you must seem dumber than your target, no one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick, is to make your victims feel smart and not just smart, but smarter than you are, once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives. Never inadvertently insult or impugn a person's brain power, subliminally reassure people that they are more intelligent than you are, the feeling of intellectual superiority you give them will disarm their suspicion-muscle, make people feel they are more sophisticated than you are and their guard will come down, convince them that you are a bit of a moron, and you can run rings around them. While acting this way keep your eyes open and you can discover a person's thumbscrew, everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall, that weakness is usually an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage. Pay close attention to what people say, the way their face's change when talking about certain subjects, see if their actions match their words, shinobi will be harder to read but not impossible.

"If you can stir up the waters, anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive, you must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decisive advantage. Put your enemies off-balance, find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings. When the waters are still, your opponents have the time and space to plot actions that they will initiate and control. So stir the waters, get your enemies to act before they are ready and steal the initiative. The best way to do this is to play on uncontrollable emotions such as pride, vanity, love, hate. Once the water is stirred up, people cannot help but rise to the bait. The angrier they become, the less control they have, and finally they are caught in the whirlpool you have made, and they drown. People show more of themselves when emotions run high, use the mask of a fool to do this, play the fool and anger them and watch their reactions."

"Something important to remember is that you must control the options and get others to play with the cards you deal, the best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice. Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets, give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose, put them on the horns of a dilemma, they are gored wherever they turn. Finally one lesson to remember is that you must learn to conceal your intentions, this will help to keep people you want off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense, guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late. As a fool you may shout them out from the roof tops but keep your real intentions hidden, use the fake one's to advance the others."

"Make other people come to you, use bait if necessary. When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control, it is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with something, gains perhaps, than attack. You hold the cards. It is a wise thing to lure your opponent on hostile ground; it is a subtle way to put him on the defensive, your opponent will be nervous which will cause him to rush his actions and make mistakes. You will want to create the illusion that your opponent is in control of the situation, oftentimes, your opponent's greed, desires and emotions will be their great motivator which means that they can be easily led around and defeated. Getting people to dig their own graves forces their hand and makes you appear powerful and demand respect. Depending on the situation, bait and wait is a wise choice but taking the lead to attack your opponent can be advantageous as well. The element of surprise does not give the opponent time to think of a counter attack, they are left at your mercy and must respond to your terms. Your biggest issue is to know what tactic to use and the right time to use it. To bait and wait or to strike with force, that is the dilemma. You can be like the bear hunter who lays the honey bait trap. He doesn't exhaust himself and risk his life to find the bear he lays a trap and waits patiently for the bear to come to him. Or if time is not on your side, strike quickly to intimidate and control. It often works to one's advantage to allow the object of one's intentions make the first move rather than pursuing them and risking their evasive actions. The reason for acting in this way is so that the other person feels that they are in control. They feel that they made the decision to act. People do not like to give up control, so when you are patient and wait for other people to make the first move, you are giving them the power to act and feel in control. They, in turn, trust you and feel comfortable around you, because they believe you are not out to manipulate them. The dark side of this is that you are manipulating the person, especially if you are using some kind of bait. If you are looking for people to work with you, or searching for love, it is preferred for someone to choose you, rather than someone who you tricked into following you. When things don't happen organically, you run the risk of having to keep up a front or keeping secrets that could damage the relationship in the end. Something has to be said for allowing things to happen organically, using bait is not necessarily bad, but it is important to allow the other person to act and not to force their hand."

Next came a memory of Sayaka after he had read a book and managed to grasp some of what it was about. Sayaka had smiled and told him the rest of what the book was about adding to what he already knew. An important lesson was to always say less than necessary, when you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague and open-ended. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less, the more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish. The other part was that you must win threw your actions and never through argument, any momentary triumph you gain through argument is really just a victory with such a devastating cost that it is tantamount to defeat. Resentment and ill will that you would stir up would be stronger and would last longer than any momentary change of opinion, it is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.

A memory flashed threw his mind, this time it was after a lesson about sneaking inside a house, Yukimura had created several kinds of houses and shops to help him learn how to do so. He had asked about other ways of dealing with people that would be against him.

"There is something for that, and it can apply to other situations as well, the solution is to

strike the shepherd so the sheep will scatter. Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual, the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoned of goodwill, if you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them, strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter. This doesn't necessarily mean only to steal his things, thought finding blackmail material there would help to shut him up, this is more about destroying their connections, their reputation, their political pull, in some cases make him so toxic that others will drop him and run away rather then be near him. Shinobi are often called to deal with people and take the simple route of killing them, while I agree with the act, be careful not to make them martyrs, destroy them first then when their down on the ground, when no one cares anymore you can slice his throat."

"This may sound cruel and Sayaka may not agree with this but I will insist on this, when the times comes crush your enemy, annihilate them, all great leaders have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely, if one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation. The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge, crush him, not only in body but in spirit. An enemy that escapes could grow desperate and seek revenge in any kind of way, whether it is by supporting your rivals or attempting a suicide attack on the people you care, anything to hurt you one last time. Sayaka believes that some enemies can be turned into allies in future or that sometimes it is simply better to let your enemies destroy themselves, so you leave your enemies an escape route, that a retreat is the ultimate demoralizing defeat. Let them be the agents of their own destruction, the result will be the same. The risk of crushing an enemy is that you embitter them so much so that they spend years and years plotting revenge, do not let your guard down, but simply crush them again."

A new memory flashed threw his mind, he had been playing Xiangqi and managed a victory against one of Sayaka's strategies, he had been so happy that rather then looking over the board and thinking how to make best use of this situation he pressed the attack and was soon destroyed. Sayaka smiled and told that often after achieving a victory people tend to lose sight of what got them there, that a feeling of power appears and people belive it will make them invincible. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push a person past the goal they had aimed for, and by going too far, one may make more enemies than in defeat. That he should not allow success to go to his head. There was no substitute for strategy and careful planning. In victory, he had to learn when to stop, that the moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. She told him how others had done the same after a victory, they had overstreched themselves and soon faced ruin, how some enemies intentionally lost one or two battles just to lure their opponents into a trap.

Now he remembered a time when he asked Yukimura about asking people for help, both were sitting in a meditive position in an open green field.

"This may sound pessimistic and Sayaka disagrees with this, there are few cases when you can agree with the request for aid because of other reasons. Now when asking for help, appeal to people's self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude. If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds, he will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself. Some may aid you because of old ties and see that they are honor bound to aid you, but not all are like that, and if you abuse such a thing you will only make the person bitter. The next is to be weary of the free lunch, what is offered for free is dangerous; it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. Few people offer such something for free; keep your eyes open at such occasions. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit, it is also often wise to pay the full price, there is no cutting corners with excellence."

"Now I want you to take these two next lessons to heart" he nodded.

"First work on the hearts and minds of others, coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you, you must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn, and the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you, aim at the primary emotions: love, hate, and jealousy, be alert to people's individual psychologies and their basic emotional responses. At all times you must attend to those around you, gauging their particular psychology, tailor your words to what you know will entice and seduce them, the higher your station, the greater the need to remain attuned to the hearts and minds of those below you, so it would be best to create a base of support to maintain you at the pinnacle. It is critical that you think before you act, use patience, it brings you peace of mind; it converts a potential enemy into a pillar of support. Take your the time to calculate and attune yourself to your targets' emotional makeup and psychological weaknesses, be alert to both what separates them from everyone else, their individual psychology, and what they share with everyone else. Soften them up, alternate harshness with mercy then play on their basic fears: hate, jealousy and also primary emotions their loves, freedom, family, once you break them down, you will have a lifelong friend and fiercely loyal ally. Learn to play the numbers game, the wider your support base the stronger your power, understand that one alienated, disaffected soul can spark a blaze of discontent, as such you too must constantly win over more allies on all levels, a time will inevitably come when you will need them."

"The second is to use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim, one sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people, once your selective honesty opens a hole in a person' armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. This is called selective honesty, who would ever distrust a person literally caught in the act of being honest? This is why an unexpected, well-timed gesture that conflicts the emotions and distracts the one being disarmed can have the most brutal and cynical beast in the land eating out of your hand. You must learn to give before you take; it softens the ground, takes the bite out of a future request, or simply creates a distraction. And the giving can take many forms: an actual gift, a generous act, a kind favor, an honest admission, whatever it takes. It's best if youuse selective honesty on your first encounter with someone, first impressions last a long time. If someone believes you are honest at the start of your relationship it takes a lot to convince them otherwise, it is best if you build a reputation for honesty based on a series of acts. Give gifts, few people can resist a gift, even from the most hardened enemy, which is why it is often the perfect way to disarm people; a gift brings out the child in us, instantly lowering our defenses. Although we often view other people's actions in the most cynical light, we rarely see the underlying element of a gift, which quite often hides ulterior motives, a gift is the perfect object in which to hide a deceptive move. Practice the tactic with caution, unless you can make the gesture seem sincere and heartfelt, do not attempt it. If people see through it, their disappointed feelings of gratitude and warmth will become the most violent hatred and distrust. If you have a history of deceit behind you, no amount of honesty, generosity, or kindness will fool people. In fact it will only call attention to itself. Once people have come to see you as deceitful, to act honest all of a sudden is simply suspicious. Overt deceptiveness will sometimes cover your tracks, even making you admired for the honesty of your dishonesty."

A final memory of Sayaka flashed threw his mind.

"Naruto-kun sometimes the best choice is to pose as a friend and work as a spy, knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still play the spy yourself, in polite social encounters probe, ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions, there is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying."

"Its time"

Naruto opened his eyes, Yukimura and Sayaka were in front of him, Yukimura was wearing black pants and a tight fitting dark purple shirt with black lines, the sleeves were rolled up above his elbows and the shirt was unbuttoned at the neck, Sayaka was wearing a dark blue skirt that ended above her knees, a white shirt and black boots. Sayaka came over and kissed Naruto on the forehead and ruffled his hair, while Yukimura held out his fist and the two fist bumped. Today, he was returning to Konoha and leave the realm that had become his home.

"We'll be able to talk a bit after your return, remember what we've taught you."

"Stay safe." Sayaka hugged him.

Naruto nodded. "I know what my goal is now."

"Oh?" Yukimura asked curiously.

Naruto smiled as he slowly disappeared from the god realm. "I want freedom, to break the chains that bind me."

Both Yukimura and Sayaka smiled and watched as Naruto disappeared.

Sayaka looked up at the sky. "It will be lonely without him."

Yukimura nodded. "He will return."

"Not quick enough."

"True, but it would have happened eventually, and we both know it is for the best." Sayaka let out a sigh and nodded turning her gaze towards the mountains in the distance. "Now then shall we focus on the other tasks?"

"Yes let us do so." In the blink of an eye they both disappeared.

* * *

Review away

Constructive criticism or pointing out possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

The Ten Commandments of Reviewing - created by FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D, post them if you agree and use them yourself

1) Thou shalt point out the parts you enjoy  
2) Thou shalt point out the parts you disliked, if any.  
3) Thou shalt point out the parts you utterly hated and explain why  
4) Thou shalt write with good grammar!  
5) Thou shalt not give annonymous reviews, for the authors might want to reply to thine criticism!  
6) Thou shalt not flame  
7) Thou shalt write a four sentence paragraph minimum!  
8) Thou shalt use constructive criticism!  
9) Thou shalt review as much as possible, not merely once!  
10) Thou shalt voice thine expectations

Check out the maps for the story, the links are on my profile page.

Check out the poll on my page and the forum where the other polls are.

* * *

A.N :

I've added an extra scene to chapter 1 and 2 check them out.

I was hoping to make the dialogue between Naruto and Sayaka about birthdays a bit better.

Check out the maps for the story, the links are on my profile page.

Originally another six scenes should have been added to chapter 1 but were scrapped. The scene placement was very different at first, Tea – Water – Snow- Red Queen- Tower- After, and then changing it to something else, hopefully with some help from a beta or two, I can work out another structure.

I had roughly 2000 words written for chapter 3 before I ended up writing a chapter worth's of extra scenes, 12278 words, for chapter 1 that were scrapped. Realizing it may make chapter 1 a bit too big, though I first wanted to have those scenes there, I decided to chop things up a bit, and place one extra scene per chapter. In chapter 3 I wanted to end things with Naruto after the hallway scene between Yukimura and Sayaka and include the part with Yue for the rest of the chapter. But then when the words kept coming I decided to continue and have him return this chapter and include the Yue scene in chapter 4. Sadly towards the end the drop in quality can be seen as I was running out of inspiration and using parts from The 33 Laws of Power by Robert Green. The good news is that with another extra scene that got cut from chapter 1 and some parts from chapter 3, chapter 4 already has 9685 words and the new goal for each chapter is 12600 words, so just a bit more until then. That bad is that almost 3000 thousand are an Anbu talking her situation and that of Konoha and Fire Country. And I want to do more once Naruto returns to Konoha, which may push the extra scene back further towards chapter 5.

The sword and martial arts stuff are from wookieepedia.

If any one has time check out Year of the Cloud by Ted Thomas.


	4. Chapter 4 : Unwanted Return

**I do not own Naruto**, If did Madara wouldn't act so brain dead

Talk now – normal talk  
_What now_ – _normal thoughts_  
**Speak – biju, higher being talk**  
**_Listen_ – _biju, higher being thoughts_**

**Chapter 4 : Unwanted Return**

When Naruto woke up he found himself in a hospital room, the smell of anesthetics assaulted his nose, Naruto blinked several times, his eyelids felt heavy to him, he looked around and he could see that he was the only one in the room, he saw that he was hooked up to several medical devices, and he slowly started to move around in the bed, his body ached all over, he remembered how Yukimura had told him that he would be gone for two weeks while in the realm and that his muscles would atrophy from the inactivity, but that he would use his power to minimize the damage done and aid in his recovery, gently Naruto began to move around trying to get used to his body once more, a moment later his felt a cooling sensation spread threw out his body, he heard a voice, that seemed to be from far away. **Relax.** Naruto let out a breath, his body felt better now, he hoped someone would come soon.

It wasn't long before a person came into the room to check up on him, a doctor by his clothing, the man was plump, had short black hair, square black rimmed glasses adorned his triangle shaped face, his cheeks were red, _he must have ran over here, so they either monitored me closely with the devices or have people in the room._

The man smiled, and wiped his hand against his forehead. "Ah young Uzumaki-san" the man began in a pleasant tone, "you are awake, my name is Ryo Bakura."

Naruto's smiled, his face took an air of innocence, curiosity and a slight tinge of fear. "Hai, ano what happened Bakura-san? Where am I? Why I are all these" he motioned towards the medical devices around him, "tied to me?"

A small brief look of panic crossed the man's face, "I think the Hokage will want to answer all of your questions."

_So he may be under orders not to talk to me, interesting, I wonder what story they made up to cover up the attack_. Naruto tilted his head curiosity engraved on his face. "Who's that?"

A shocked look crossed the man's face. "You don't know who the Hokage is?"

"Nope, ano should I?" Naruto replied in a cheerful tone of voice.

"Uzumaki-san he's the village leader, the most respected person in the village as well" the man stopped to catch his breath "why even told me that he knew you personally."

Naruto blinked at man, outwardly betraying nothing, the lessons from Yukimura and Sayaka were etched into him now, and after studying to read people the doctor appeared like on open book to him, the last six months had been more nightmare than dream, constant drills and exercises, but as he could see now it had paid off, while he has nowhere near as good as Yukimura or Sayaka, he was at least a beginner and more skilled then other people. The doctor's face gave him away, the man respected the Hokage, actually admired him, but there was also a fear of him in the man, the doctor was a loyal supporter of the Hokage, he could tell that much. He needed to play his cards right, he shrugged his shoulders. "Can't say I've heard of the Hagane"

"Hokage, Uzumaki-san" Ryo countered.

"Hokaze? He replied looking towards the doctor.

"Hokage!" Ryo placed a bit more force behind the word.

"Kazekage?" Naruto asked innocently.

"How did you" the doctor shook his head "never mind"

"Ano, can I have some food? I'm hungry." He asked in a meek tone of voice, lowering his head and slumping his shoulders.

Ryo looked at him strangely for a moment. "I…um yes of course, I'll have the nurses bring you something right away."

"Really?" Naruto stared at the man wide eyed. "You will?" He rubbed his stomach. "I thought that maybe I had missed food time and would have to wait until tomorrow."

"Why would you ever think such a thing?" Ryo asked incredulously.

"Isn't that how things are done?" Naruto asked in a surprised tone.

"No" the doctor shook his head "how can you think such a thing?"

"It's what they said at the orphanage."

A look of sadness crossed the man's face. "I umm, they have their own way of doing things there, but we do things differently here Uzumaki-san."

"Then can I stay here? Or visit? Please." He asked in a pleading tone.

Naruto could see the myriad of emotions that crossed the man's face. "You should speak to the Hokage he's…. ". At that moment the door opened and both Naruto and Ryo turned towards the door where they both recognized the Sandaime Hokage dressed in his red and white robes.

Naruto looked at man, he knew that he had to be careful around the man, he could see how hard the man's face was, although he had a kind smile, Naruto could see the steel underneath, it reminded him of how Sayaka's face had been on several occasions during their training. Yukimura always seemed more like ice, his words reverberated threw his head, _play the fool, using your young age as a tool, make them feel smarter. _Naruto smiled and waved at the Hokage. "Hey you're the old man with the funny hat, you here to eat too?"

The Hokage laughed at bit and offered him a grandfatherly kind smile, Ryo looked horrified at Naruto.

"Uzumaki-san this is the Hokage, you can't speak to him like that!" the man's tone was shaken.

Naruto looked wide-eyed at the Sandaime; he tried to lift one of his hands to point at the man but failed. "Wow no way, you're the Hokage old man!"

The Hokage nodded. "Yes I am Naruto-kun."

"Then what were you doing at the orphanage."

The Sandaime took a few steps and got closer to Naruto. "As Hokage it is my duty to protect and guide this village and it's people, and I rather enjoy spending time with children and looking after the next generation of the village, especially who I think have great potential such as yourself, why did you think I visited the orphanage?"

"I just thought you were and old man that liked the visit children at the orphanage, I thought those funny clothes were all you had, you know, that you lived in them, you only came by wearing them, I thought you were just as worse of as us, but stayed in a place for old people like you," Naruto managed with great effort to lift his hand and began to pick his nose, "or on the streets." Naruto noticed Ryo's horrified expression grew larger and the man started to turn pale, if the Hokage had agents in the room they would probably be starring at him wide eyed now, he had just called the Hokage an old man, implied he was poor, thought he lived in a retirement home, and was possibly a hobo.

The Hokage let out another laugh, "Well things are a bit different then that Naruto-kun, now I'm afraid I have to ask you this, do you remember how you got here?" a small look of sadness and worry seemed to have taken over the man's face, the lines on his face only looked more visible now, like ditches that been dried up in the hot summer.

Naruto smiled. "Nope" he lowered his head a bit "did I do something bad?"

Relief overtook the Sandaime's face. "No, why would you think that?"

Naruto lowered his head even more and grabbed his bed sheets trying to cover himself more with them; he spoke in an eerily sad tone. "The caretakers say I that do bad things and that I need to get punished for them."

A veritable wave of emotions passed over the Sandaime's face. "No, Naruto-kun nothing of the sorts, you were injured in an accident, and have been here for a while, I was quite worried about you."

"You were?" Naruto asked in a shocked tone of voice looking up at the Hokage with disbelieving eyes, he could see several emotions on the man's face, sadness and sorrow appeared to be there but with someone like the Hokage he could not be too sure of it.

"Of course" the Hokage neared Naruto and made a move to ruffle his hair, but Naruto flinched and tried to move his hands in a defensive way. "I'm not going to hurt you Naruto-kun."

"Really?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Of course not" the Sandaime told him in a stern tone of voice. "I would never do that, now Ryo-san will look to see if you have recovered from your injury, don't worry he won't hurt you either alright?"

"You promise?"

"Yes I do Naruto-kun." The Sandaime told him in a warm tone of voice.

Naruto nodded and Ryo began to examine him.

* * *

Naruto looked down at his plate with food that a nurse had brought now long ago, the check up had gone well according to the doctor and during it another man had arrived, the man had blond hair reaching his shoulders, which he wore spiky on top and let it flow freely on his back, he had green pupil less eyes and strong facial features, he wore what Naruto assumed to be the a shinobi flak jacket over a grey outfit. Another doctor that would check him up as well, the Sandaime had told him, he asked Naruto to close his eyes for a moment and breath slowly. When Naruto recovered the second man had left the room and the Sandaime and doctor were preparing to leave the room as well, the Sandaime told Naruto to eat his food and to relax, that he was just stepping out for a short moment and would return swiftly.

After the door closed Naruto heard a small voice whispering to him to press his hand against the bed, after doing so he could feel something flowing from it, like water dripping out of a drainpipe, he sensed another person in the room near the door, hidden in the shadows, the energy pushed past that until it got to the door and Naruto could hear parts of the conversation, with his free hand he began to eat, making a face like the food was the first he had ever tasted in his life, it didn't compare to what Yukimura would make but it was at least better then what the orphanage had, he began eating with gusto, it was after all better then nothing. Naruto slowly started to hear words from beyond the door, the first sounded like the doctor.

"Recovery….quickly…..out in a….days….medical…."

"….good….continue…..keep me…..date"

Naruto could feel more energy being poured out and the voices suddenly became much clearer.

"Well?" _Is has to be the Hokage._

"His mind is stable" _the other man_ "though some memories have been lost, he has repressed the memory of the attack and I've added more to help ensure that the memory stays blocked."

The Sandaime let out a sigh "Perhaps that is for the best"

"I've helped things along where I could Hokage-sama, it should be alright to continue with that in a month or two, best to let things settle down a bit." _What are they talking about?_

"Good" there was a small pause "and of your other task?"

"It is still asleep."

"Dismissed"

* * *

As soon as the other person left Naruto felt the energy dissipating, and removed his hand, the Hokage stepped back into the room, the warm grandfatherly smile never leaving his face.

"Ah Naruto-kun it appears that you will be able to leave this place in a few days."

Naruto made a good attempt to look upset. "Why? I get food here!"

A small flicker of sadness passed over the man's face. "Didn't you get food at the orphanage? And what about your friends there, don't you want to see them?" his voice was filled with concern.

Naruto looked down at this plate and kept his face away from the Hokage. "They didn't give as much as the others, and I don't have any friends, no wants to play with me there, the caretakers said it was only natural that nobody would want anything to do with me."

The Sandaime began in a warm tone "Well those people are gone now; it's alright to return there."

Naruto looked up to him wide eyed. "All of them are gone? What happened?"

"They decided to leave our beloved village." A hint of sadness could be heard mixed with the words, but it sounded like the man was upset that they left the village and not about the departure itself.

"All of the caretakers left?" Naruto asked incredulously._ Did he kill them or actually allow them to leave?_

"Well not all of them but…."

"So the mean people could still be there." Naruto looked to close in on himself.

A quick look passed across the Sandaime's face. "Well there is something else we could do."

"There is?" he asked hopefully.

"I could get you a place just for yourself" The Sandaime answered in the same warm tone of voice as before, though now it appeared a bit more calculated.

"Really old man, you would do that for me?"

"Yes I would Naruto-kun" he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto for his part was surprised at how close the Sandaime had gotten to him, _he moved slowly but steadily, I didn't even flinch when he touched me, he's good at getting past people's defenses, I shouldn't be too surprised. _"You're the best old man." Naruto moved and embraced the Sandaime in a hug as much as his body allowed him. _Best to let him think he's made good progress._

The next few days flew rather fast as Ryo returned and continued to help Naruto recover, apparently using chakra could help restore his muscles even faster, it also seemed that the doctor had been doing it even before he woke up to make sure the muscle atrophy wouldn't cause too much damage. The Sandaime came by a few more times to check up on him and after three days when Naruto was released from the hospital with a clean bill of health the Sandaime took him to his new home.

* * *

Naruto stared at his new home_, this is_…. **_a dump_**, he heard Sayaka's voice; **_it has possibilities,_** Yukimura's voice countered. **_For a small child it's actually rather good. _**Naruto smiled briefly, hearing their voices again felt great to him.

Naruto looked around his new home; it was a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a building that looked sort of like a tiered cake gone wrong. It was made up of two main rooms, the bedroom and the kitchen/dining area, plus a small hallway and bathroom, it totaled up to be about 400 square feet total. The apartment had a wooden floor, the walls were green colored, but they also had wooden planks on them, _for some reason_. To his left there was a small wooden drawer, next to it was the heater, right next to the heater was a one person sized bed with white sheets, and a medium size wooden box was at the foot of the bed. A bit farther away was a rather large old wardrobe, next to it was a table and two wooden chairs, a large window with blue curtains was in front of the table, a cabinet was on the left side near the hallway with a small electric stove on it. In the hallway leading to the bathroom was a grey fridge with an old wooden kitchen cabinet filled with pots, plates and some silverware, _no sharp knifes, well that's logical, _there were also some hand towels in it.

Naruto quickly ran around the apartment wide eyed, looking everywhere before returning to the Sandaime, smiling at him. "This is huge! It even has a bathroom! This place is awesome! Thanks old man!"

"It's quite alright Naruto-kun." The Sandaime waved a hand in front of him dismissively. "I'll have someone come over to help teach you a few things later."

"Thanks old man, but" Naruto's tone became down cast and he lowered his head "why do all of this just for me?"

The grandfatherly smile never left the Sandaime's face. "Well it's my duty to help all of the villagers Naruto-kun, and I think you have great potential."

"You do?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes I do Naruto-kun." That warm tone of voice seemed so kind to Naruto, if it was real then the Sandaime was a fool not having better control over his troops but if it wasn't then the Hokage was a master at faking his emotions, something he was more inclined to believe.

"Old man, do you know why people look at me like they do?" he asked lowering his head again.

A small tinge of sadness entered the man's voice. "No I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I don't."

"Oh". Naruto responded keeping his head down.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that if strive for it you will be able to get them to acknowledge you and prove to them just what a good boy you are."

Naruto kept his head down and closed his eyes as he bit his lip, _prove to them?_ He wanted to tell him that he shouldn't have anything to prove but he kept his mouth shut, he managed to get his own emotions under control and asked in a voice that bordered on crying. "Really old man?" He still didn't look him in the face afraid that the Sandaime would see the anger in his eyes.

"I'm sure of it." The Sandaime replied in a warm tone. "Now why don't I show you how some of the things in your new home function?"

"Yes please!" Naruto wiped a hand over his eyes, but averted his gaze from the Sandaime.

For the next two hours the Hokage showed Naruto how the electric stove functioned, he talked about the fridge, how he shouldn't leave the door open, about the shower, things that Naruto unknown to him already knew. During this time Naruto smiled and looked star eyed at everything, appearing to hang on the Hokage's every word. When the Hokage left, he promised that he would return again from time to time and that Naruto could come and visit him, shortly another person came and continued what the Hokage began. The person, Tetsu Sasaki, had a professional and cold attitude; Naruto acted friendly toward the man but the man simply rebuked any attempt Naruto made for friendship. He did his job and nothing more or less, he didn't appear to hate him or to care too much; he simply did what he was told, nothing more or less. Tetsu would return a few more times and with Naruto showing that he was able to retain everything he was taught appeared pleased and would report it to the Hokage. It was nighttime when Tetsu left, before leaving the man helped Naruto to make dinner, after Naruto washed his plate, and entered the bathroom he heard a voice that he missed.

**_Naruto as soon as you are done, go to bed directly, then place one of your hands on the room walls. _**

Naruto smiled and did as he was told, after washing up quickly he went straight to bed, as soon as he placed his hand on the wall he could feel the same sensation as before, it now felt like warm water flowing threw him and slowly spreading throw out the room.

**_Well, well, well, _**Yukimura's voice had a curious tone to it**_, it appears that there are a few surprises here after all, it looks like you have someone watching you from the shadows Naruto, and there are some seals in the room as well. Be careful, we'll meet again at the end of the week. What? Yes. I'll tell him, Sayaka sends her love, just endure a bit more Naruto._**

The next few days passed far too slowly for Naruto's taste, Tetsu returned a few more times to make sure Naruto remembered and used everything he had been taught. To pass the time Naruto walked around Konoha, the people's glares seemed to surround and follow him wherever he went, he walked threw some of the parks in Konoha, remembering the walks with Sayaka and Yukimura, he couldn't help but smile and think about happier times, at least the parks around Konoha were nice even with autumn arriving. He felt bad about having his routine being broken up, he couldn't read anything, nor could he practice anything fighting style. The food he had was easy to cook, just heat it up and it was ready, the Sandaime had told him that he would get an allowance to help him buy things and live, at least the food he had was in large quantities, he missed however the fruits and vegetables that accompanied his usual meals. The Sandaime had bought him clothes as well, and were placed in his wardrobe, there were a few of them and looked to cover all of the seasons. He spotted a few places in the parks, where he could try and plant his own fruits and vegetables later on, his own luck seemed to shine as he found some fruits that Yukimura had told him and had eaten in the parks. At night before going to bed he would often look out the window towards the stars, the view was better than he expected.

His new home, the small apartment was on the top floor of a building that looked sort of like a tiered cake gone wrong, the building was a pink nuance that had lost some of its color with the passage of time and because of the rain. There were three different tiers each with its own top; each top in turn was covered in red wood tiles that looked to have had more tiles added to them over the years, large thick cables could be seen sprawled on them, in some places the cables looked patched up, all around he could see them being tied with rope to the wooden tiles. The second and third tiers had just below them green wooden tiles around the walls they were patched up in several places with small metal plates. What confused him greatly were the metal pipes emerging from the second tier's walls, their purpose wasn't clear to him and it disgusted him if they were actually drainage pipes that would spill their contents on the lower roof tiles and people down below, a thought crossed him mind that perhaps they were placed there for esthetic reasons.

The building had stairs to get to the first and second floors, but not the third one where he lived for that one needed to take the metal stairs that seemed steady enough but one look at them and someone could tell that they had withstood the passage of many years, too many perhaps to still be used.

At the end of week when he went to bed Naruto felt a small pull and then an embrace enveloping him, even in his sleepy state he knew who it was, he didn't struggle against it, he let himself be guided by it, he just felt happy that he was going back to where he considered was his real home.

* * *

Snow Country

Yue Kakuyoku moved forward, one hand rose to shield her face from the relentless cold winds that seemed to howl at them as they continued on their path, she raised her other hand and made a quick sign, a motion for her team to stop and rest.

As her team rested she checked her supplies again, she could feel it in her gut that something was going to happen, her hands went to her pouches, with kunais, explosive tags and shurikens, Yue gently placed a hand over the hilt of her sword. She was short, petite some had said; she had light skin and violet-colored eyes, black hair with several strands of hair always hanging between her eyes. She wore a hooded black cloak and black shinobi armor with parts of it white around the neck, hands, stomach and feet, she also had a badge around her uniform's left sleeve that reached her upper arm which was meant to show her rank within her shinobi village, her hiate was just above her badge.

Yue looked around herself, the forest felt eerie and looked dark, she couldn't put the feeling into words, but the place had always felt strange to her, they were close to the dragon's wall and the endless White Sea, far to close for her taste. Her dear old nan had told her stories about the ancient times, when the creatures from beyond the White Sea had attacked the world of men, of the war that was fought to drive them back and how the dragon's wall was used to keep the creatures locked away, how an order fought against the creatures and patrolled the wall. She had dreamt of the dragon's wall, of a great wall of fire, of even greater pillars of fire rising from the fire stones, sadly all she found when she reached that place were just a few large bumps in the snow, when she looked closer she found simple large grey stones with some distance between them, she expected the fire stones to be some sort of red, in the end it was just another childhood dream that died when she got older. Even before the ninja system arouse in the world, Snow country had an old order that patrolled the country who's purpose had supposedly been to fight against the old enemy and later to patrol the dragon's wall after it's creation, sadly the order had waned over the years, their deeds seen as myth, the order got desperate and ended up recruiting prisoners from various jails, with the rise of the ninjas the order went even farther into decline until it disappeared entirely, the ninja system had been the final nail in it's coffin.

Many of Yue's fellow countrymen claimed their country was one of the largest countries in the known world, while it was true that the country was large, sadly that was where things ended, the amount of land where people could live was small compared to its overall size and then there was the White Sea and the land beyond it that were deemed uninhabitable. The harsh weather made life difficult for the people of Snow but it had also given them a sense of pride, of being able to withstand such conditions to live and still prosper, it had been the cold weather that drove Kumo out when it invaded her country, not its armies.

The cold was both their greatest ally and their worst enemy, people talked about how snow was the great enemy, and about how the icy winds would freeze the blood in people, but the real enemy was the cold, it slowly sneaked up on someone and at first the person felt a shiver and their teeth would chatter, a person would stomp their feet to feel warm dreaming of a nice warm fire. But they didn't know the truth about the cold, it burned and nothing burned like the cold, but only for a few moments, then it got inside of you and started to slowly fill you up, and after a time you didn't have the strength to fight it, it was easier to just sit down and go to sleep. People often spoke about how you don't feel any pain towards the end, first you feel weak and drowsy, and then everything started to slowly fade, and then it's like sinking into a warm sea. She shook her head, every child in Snow learned how important it was to stay warm, the cold was constant and relentless, one simply had to adapt to its wims or perish.

Yue looked at her badge for a moment, her ninja village was not a large one, they didn't have a kage, they had a council of five shinobi, their strongest, but even their strongest jounin barely reached high B and low A class, her sensei Kaien Shiba was the only one to be close to A class, she couldn't help but smile thinking about him, the man had aided her greatly in the beginning. Yue took out a golden pendant from a pocket of her armor and opened it reveling two pictures in it, one with her friends and sensei at a bar and the second with her little sister, she had found the small girl on the streets during a mission and had adopted the little bundle of joy, she had started teaching her what she could, as the little tike wanted to be just like her. Yue closed the pendant and placed it back into her pocket, she looked back to her team eyeing each person up.

The first she looked at was Shoji Izumi, a large man, almost twice Yue's height and just over four times her weight; the man claimed that he was just plump and that it represented a sign of his good living and wealth. He had black hair, and wore the standard armor with a modified large purple collar; the man had a smug superior look on his face, like he was better then the rest of the people. He was indeed the son of a noble family, why he had joined the shinobi force was unknown to Yue, the man had let himself go after a few years of active duty and now had problems keeping up with the rest of the team. However even with his less the desirable qualities he was exceedingly loyal to the country and their village and had shown himself to be deceptively sharp in combat enough to catch his opponents' off-guard.

Yue's eyes shifted to Ganju Shiba, a tall muscular man with chin-length black hair and a partially missing left eyebrow. He wore a green scarf, bandanna and pair of goggles alongside his armor; he was her sensei's cousin. Next was Takahiro Hirano who appeared to be a mild-featured man with brown scholarly hair enhanced by square glasses, along with soft brown eyes. The man was polite, soft-spoken, casual and uncaring, he always attempted to draw out a conversation and make small talk, which often infuriated those he was talking to, the man had always unnerved her some reason, Yue could never place the exact reason, the man was a good swordsmen and skilled with illusions, even considered a rising start in their ranks.

The fourth person was Hidetomo Kajōmaru, a bespectacled man of average height with medium length, light-colored hair which was largely combed back, except for a few strands which framed either sides of his face, three earrings hanged from each of his ears, and bands encircled his wrists. The fifth and last person was Koji Minamoto who had dark hair and a short goatee; he wore a customized version of the standard armor, wearing a thin white headband and white straps around his shoulders, which were tied in a circle at his back.

Yue returned to her team, she felt that the wind had lessened in its intensity, _a good thing; we can reach the dragon's wall and then begin our return trip after the investigation._

"It's time to move." She barked towards her team.

The men nodded and the team began its trip once more, Ganju stayed on her right, Takahiro on her left, Shoji directly behind her, Hidetomo and Koji each stayed a bit behind Shoji one on his left and one on his right, it wasn't long before Ganju approached her.

"We should start back," Ganju urged as the woods began to grow ever dark around them, the eerie felling intesifying. "Whatever people the reports mentioned are dead by now, and whatever tracks were left have been covered by now."

"Perhaps, but even so it is our duty to investigate", she paused for a moment "do the dead frighten you?" Yue asked with just the hint of a smile, her sensei had told her that Ganju had been terrified of the stories involing the old enemy, the creatures beyond the White Sea. Ganju did not rise to the bait.

Yue sighed it's not that she didn't agree with him, crossing the White Sea was almost impossible, one could walk on some parts of it as it was solid while at other parts it was soft which brought a quick death for the person who sank in the snow, it required tedious trial and error. There were stories of people managing to traverse it but those were just stories and never had any proof, there seemed to be no way to reach the lands beyond the White Sea from the South or West of the country as people attempting to do so ending up dieing in a rock slide like Gardener's End in the South or become trapped and had to resort to cannabalism such as Ruri Asano's failed expedition. The only safe way to traverse it seemed to be the use chakra and walk on it similar to water walking, but no one had the reserve for such a feat, a few fools had tried it and were now somewhere below frozen in the White Sea. So when the reports of people being seen around the dragon's wall reached them they assumed it was people passing threw or someone insane enough to attempt to cross the sea, suicide there had occurred before. Still whispers of people beyond the White Sea arriving began to spread and in order to quell them several teams had been dispatched around the dragon's wall to investigate.

"Dead is dead," Ganju told her. "People from across the White Sea, bah" he told her in a mocking tone, "probably just some fools that are seeking their death there."

"Are they dead though?" Yue asked softly. "What proof do we have?"

"How could anyone ever cross that bloody damn thing, it can't be done, not in the summer and especially not now when winter nears" Ganju told her said. "All that we'll find are some corpses if we're lucky, or a sign showing where they sank in the sea."

Yue glanced at the sky with interest with Ganju following her, dark clouds seem to fill the sky slowly rolling in from the White Sea, she bit her lip, they were a few hours away from the dragon's wall and it would take a few hours to investigate, if the weather turned bad they would have to create a shelter and spend the night at the wall, the only good news for her was that the old stones were useful in protecting against the cold when used in the contruction of the shelter.

"Are you afraid of the dark, Ganju?" Takahiro asked, Ganju didn't respond, choosing to keep his mouth shut. Yue could see the tightness around Ganju's mouth, the barely suppressed anger in his eyes under the thick black hood of his cloak, Ganju wasn't particularly fond of Takahiro either and trying to swap lines with the man had often left him looking like a fool. And yet it was more than that. Under the wounded pride, Yue could sense something else in him. She could taste it; a nervous tension that came perilous close to fear. She shared his unease, and looking at Takahiro even he seemed to be tense for some reason, Yue briefly touched the hilt of her sword once more. She had been on this route before, the first time she had been sent on it, she had been excited and terrified, all the old stories had come rushing back, by the time she had arrived at the wall she was shaking like a leaf and her nerves were a wreck from the journey threw the forest. She had laughed about it afterward and made sure to scare the rookies she took on the trip later on. Yue considered herself a veteran of traveling this road by now, and the endless dark wilderness of the forest had no more terrors for her even if the eerie feeling never fully went away, she had believed the forest nothing new for her. That was until today, something was different today, there was an edge to the darkness of the forest, every shadow seemed to have eyes and were watching them, Yue had felt as though something was watching her team intensly, something cold born of the old legends, carefuly sizing them up, waiting like a wild beast to pounce at the right moment upon them, Ganju felt is as well. They had been on the road for many days now and each day had been worse than the day that had come before it. Today though seemed to be the worst of them all. A cold wind was blowing out of the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things, it felt like the White Sea was trying to push them back, warning them of some dark nightmare that would descend upon them with their only choice being to return and pray. Yue wanted to turn back as well, but that meant lying to her sensei and dissapointing him, something that she wouldn't do.

"Cousin would understand" Ganju told her. "Those people are surely dead, besides we have a hard road back, look at those clouds, I don't like this weather. How long has it been since we've had weather like this?" Yue didn't say anything it was true, the weather this year had been far worse, colder for some reason. "We'll be lucky if it just snows, maybe a snow storm, do you want to get caught in an ice storm?" Yue ignored him again, she had been caught in both of those two and neither was a pretty thing, the thought of an ice storm sent a chill down her spine, even if their ice abilities relied on ice, dealing with such a storm was a nightmare.

Yue first spoke in a quiet tone, "we both know he would be disapointed in us if we didn't see this threw to the end", she raised her voice for the the others to hear her, "our honor and pride as a shinobi of this country is at stake, be it a snow storm or an ice storm we will push forward and accomplish our mission."

"Well said captain!" Takahiro gave her a smile. "If the captain has no fear or hesitation then you should follow her example"

Ganju growled "It's not fear damn you it's... "

"Well perhaps you would like to discuss the species of trees around these parts to help keep your mind occupied"

"I don't want to talk about the bloody damn trees." A cold wind blew towards them. "There's something wrong here, can't you feel it?" Ganju asked.

"We know, everyone here realizes this, however constantly talking about it doesn't help, and your talk only helps to further increase the already swelling tension within our little group Ganju-kun."

Yue nodded her head towards Takahiro. "Ganju, he's right, calm down."

The group didn't speak anymore as they advanced, until in the distance Yue spotted people, as she looked closer her eyes widened at who she saw not far away both her and Ganju speed up to reach those people, Yue never noticed Takahiro slowly gripping his sword.

"Megumi-san."Yue greated.

"Yue-san, I've told you before that you can refer to me as simply Megumi."

"Hai...Megumi-san." Yue couldn't help but smile at see the woman, Megumi Shiba, her sensei's wife, a young looking woman with long dark hair that she kept tied up with a strand hanging down on each side, she always had a warm smile on her face. She was glad she could have someone else she trusted at her side. Yue looked over the others that accompanied her sensei's wife and that she recognized, Rikū had light colored hair that was tied back into a long, braided ponytail, he had small eyebrows and was of medium height. Sho Hayami had purple eyes, long, wavy, blond hair and a perpetually bored expression. Rei Igarashi, wore her hair down with a bang completely covering her left eye, the bang that covered her left eye was dyed a grey while the rest of her hair retained its natural black color. She wore white eyeliner that brought out her ocean blue eyes. Yasushi Ōhama height wasn't something to be noticed when looking at him, the man had fiery red hair which spiked in the back, chocolate brown eyes; the man had a small horizontal scar on his right cheek. The last person of the group was Harunobu Ogidō who was of average height and weight for his age, he had brown eyes and hair that was a dark forest green, several bangs framed his face, they all wore the standard armor.

"I have to ask what are you doing here Megumi-san?" The rest of Yue's team arrived and formed ranks behind her.

"Well we finished our patrol and came to aid you with yours; we have a few extra supplies that could come in handy."

Her warm tone made her feel so safe like being wrapped in a warm blanket. Yue smiled at her. Ganju had a goofy smile on his face, but managed to keep his mouth shut.

Takahiro gave Megumi a casual salute and smile. "That's quite nice of you Shiba-san, making your way threw the forest and hoping to meet up with us with no certainties of where the team would be, and considering how long it would take to reach your destination and then make your way towards us, our team could have reached our destination by now as well."

Yue looked at Takahiro. _What is he playing at? Megumi-san just came to aid us and_. Her thoughts stopped when she thought about it, it was strange though, Megumi's team had managed to reach the wall rather quickly and then she made her way towards a possible destination of her team unknowing of where they would be, for some reason the team also traveled threw the forest rather then near the wall. Yue brushed those thoughts aside she couldn't think such thoughts, Megumi was probably just worried about her and decided to come lend a hand that was the type of person she was.

Megumi responded with a smile of her own. "The path was better for us and we made great time, seeing the conditions I decided to make take the team towards you, the more people the better the chances of survival in case of a rough storm, we don't leave our comrades stranded I thought you understood that Takahiro-san." The last few words seemed to carry both sadness and reprimand in them.

Yue relaxed that was just the answer she had hoped for, it did make sense to her.

"Well that is so nice of you Megumi-san" Takahiro began in a warm tone of voice and with a smile on his face.

"Takahiro enough! She came to aid us and that's good enough for me" Yue turned towards Megumi, "how do you want to handle things."

"This is still your patrol and team Yue-san, we will cover your back if you desire."

"Excellent, Izumu will take the rear guard with Igarashi and Ogidō, Megumi-san, Rikū and Hayami the middle, Takahiro and Ganju in front with me, Kajōmaru and Minamoto behind the two." The team began to make its way forward once more; it wasn't long before Ganju started talking with Megumi.

"Did your team find anything on the patrol nee-chan?"

"Nothing of interest", Megumi shook her head "mostly likely the person who saw someone near the wall was mistaken, his mind probably played tricks on him."

"See, we don't really need to go there either, it's surely nothing."

"Ganju-kun you know we have a mission to accomplish, even if it's nothing it is our duty to investigate."

Yue smiled seeing Megumi agree with her, she was aware that she emulated Megumi to a degree.

Takahiro spoke next. "Megumi-san I hope you would be as kind as to help satiate a few of my curiosities."

"Oi oi don't bother nee-chan."

"It's alright Ganju-kun, if I can I will Takahiro-san."

"My thanks; you are as kind as always Megumi-san"

"It simply my way of being Takahiro-san, I don't consider it anything special."

"Such modesty"

_Are these two trying to out compliment each other?_

"Now I noticed that Rikū-san doesn't have his sword with him."

"Yes that's correct."

"Odd considering I saw him leave with it, did something occur on your uninteresting trip?"

Yue's eyebrows furrowed, _what is he doing?_ She noticed that Rikū tensed. _What's going on?_

"Rikū-kun lost his blade while training, he was supposed to simply stay on watch duty but decided to train during it, I personally believe losing the blade was some sort of punishment for not doing his duty properly."

"An interesting view Megumi-san, religious perhaps?"

Megumi shook her head. "Nothing of the sort I just believe people get what they deserve."

The way Megumi spoke the last few words seemed wrong for some reason to Yue, they seemed to hold malice in them, something that she had never heard from the woman before, Yue decided to brush it aside.

"Oh? and the sword sheath?"

"I told him to discard it."

Yue looked puzzled. _Why would she do that?_

"Odd, why would you do such a thing Megumi-san? Losing the blade was bad enough."

"This way the loss was complete, dereliction of duty is nothing to be treated lightly."

"Of course, how right you are Megumi-san, my next curiosity is why Ogidō-san limping?"

Yue looked behind her, as the continued moving she noticed that Ogidō seemed to favor one side more than the other, _why didn't I notice that before?_

"Oh, that, he stumbled on some branches buried in the snow, it's nothing serious."

"That's good I would hate to think that you would drag the poor man here if he was wounded."

"Perish the thought Takahiro-san."

"Well then one last question then Megumi-san, where are Ryūnosuke Yuki and Shinobu Eishima? I know that they were part of your patrol team."

"I sent them back, so they can give our report and tell the village of our choice to join up with your team."

"Oh, so you sent two people back, what about what you said about the more people the better during a storm? That we don't leave our comrades behind, why send just those two back when there are chances for a storm, it doesn't sound too good for them."

Ganju's face took an angry look. "What are you accusing Megumi-chan of you bastard?"

"It's alright, like I mentioned earlier we finished our mission rather quickly and I sent those two back immediately, the dark clouds were not yet rolling in from the White Sea, with speed they wouldn't be caught in any possible storm, however for those who had not yet reached the wall and began their return journey it would have been a lot more difficult."

"Yeah see Takahiro, nee-chan had her reasons."

"I see, thank for satisfying my curiosity Megumi-san, I am quite grateful."

"Anytime Takahiro-san."

During all this time Yue's stomach churned something didn't add up, her instincts were telling her that things weren't right, even as a part of her tried to ignore it, telling herself that Megumi-san wouldn't lie about such things.

A heavy wind blew towards her and Yue felt the attack coming from behind her more then anything, her instincts flaring, she managed to duck and dodge the kunais then threw herself back to put some distance between herself and whoever threw the kunais, the sound of metal on metal and of flesh being slashed quickly filled the air. The wind she realized mostly likely saved her life, a quick look revealed Takahiro a few feet away from her sword drawn standing against Kajōmaru and Hayami, he looked like he had been nicked in his left shoulder, Ganju had a kunai stuck in his back right arm, Minamoto was standing a few feet in front of him. Yue gazed incredulously at who threw the kunais, Megumi and Rikū still had their hands outstretched from the kunais they threw. Yue's face was etched with disbelief; her voice was filled with shock and a hint of panic. "Megumi-san why?" She barely stammered the next words "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like Yue-chan? I'm cleaning ranks." She told her as if it was the most normal thing in the world, that war smile still on her face.

"So it is treason after all." Takahiro stated in a serious tone of voice.

"I assure you Takahiro-san I'm quite loyal to the new regime."

"What?" Yue asked. When she heard the words new regime things seemed to click into place, like a dam that had ruptured, small things that she had noticed began to make sense.

Takahiro gave her an apologetic smile. "Well I must offer my apologies captain-san, I thought this mission was just to kill me, but now I see that it is to kill several of us."

"Of, so you figured that out Takahiro-san."

"Of course, Megumi-san, I have been hearing such interesting things as of late, it wasn't that hard to piece together. I believed that these mission were just to cover up the elimination of certain shinobi that weren't like minded, I was surprised when I saw you and your team, so many people just for me, either you believed I was a greater threat or someone else in this team needed to be eliminated as well. The small inconsistencies with your team such as the missing members of your team, who are dead, Rikū-san missing blade, lost in the battle I would say, and Ogidō-san injury resulted from our dear fallen comrades that managed to put up a fight."

Megumi shook her head. "A shame, you could have been useful to us, if only you could have seen things our way it would have never come to this."

Takahiro's normal smile returned to his face, only this time it a hint of mockery to it. "I think we both know that's lie Megumi-san."

"True, we would have killed you even if you had joined us, but you would have lived a bit longer and you wouldn't have died out here in the middle of nowhere." She motioned around herself.

Ganju looked at the scene between the two with open mouth and wide eyes. "Nee-chan how could you?"

"Its Doto isn't it" Yue stated.

"Correct Yue-chan, Doto and Raido are the future of this country; we must simply eliminate those who would appose the new rule."

"What of sensei?" Yue asked tightening her fists.

"Oh don't worry I have" the next words were spoken in a more sensual tone "special plans for him."

Yue gritted her teeth and got into a fighting stance. "Do you really think he won't come looking for us? That he won't realize what is going on here, with other shinobi going missing!"

"Let him look for you all he wants, it doesn't matter Yue-chan." Megumi responded in a careless tone of voice.

"Did you and Raido set these missions up just to kill those who wouldn't join you?"

"No, believe it or not, we wanted to do something about you people but we were still planning when the missions came in, imagine our surprise when we saw them, Kami sent us a boon Yue-chan, even Kami is on our side." Megumi raised her hands towards the sky at the last words.

"Why do this yourself?"

"Because I want to be the one that kill's you Yue-chan."

"What?" Yue asked taking a small step back.

"Do you think I don't know Yue-chan?!" Megumi began in an agitated tone of voice. "Do you think I don't see how you look at my husband? I know you love him that you want him!" she shouted the last part.

Takahiro chuckled. "Well, well, it appears that there is trouble in paradise."

Izumi huffed out loud, "Hey do you know whose son I am?"

"Yeah the son of former noble family" Ogidō answered.

"Yeah, that's right I'm… wait, what do you mean former?"

"Well see," Ogidō began in a lazy tone of voice "some people are just too loyal to the old daimyo and well we can't have those people running around, so we need to make them disappear during the chaos of the takeover."

"You bastards!" Izumi slammed both his hands on the ground shaking the earth and blowing the snow away, with the earth frozen little could be done with it. Both Igarashi and Ogidō leaped away from him.

Megumi looked back with an annoyed expression on her face. "Must I do everything myself?" She drew her blade and leaped towards Izumi. "Keep her busy she's mine to kill." She yelled towards Rikū who nodded and rushed towards Yue.

Izumi managed to draw his sword and stopped a sword swipe from Megumi, using his strength he threw her back where Megumi hit the snow covered earth, Izumi turned to his right and managed to stop Ogidō's blade, while holding his own blade with his left hand he delivered a fierce right hook to Ogidō's face where a crunch was heard, the man smashed head first into a tree where another crunching sound was heard. For a brief moment Izumi believed that he was gaining the advantage, he turned to deal with the other attacker, too late though as Igarashi made a low sword sweep at his knees and slashed him there bringing him down on all fours. Megumi having managed to get back up quickly slashed his hands, now Izumi felt the cold wind coming into contact with his warm blood. Megumi laughed a bit,

"Don't worry you'll meet your family on the other side soon enough." Izumi gritted his teeth and prepared to try and leap at the woman, before he could do anything he felt something cold on his neck, Igarashi quickly cut Izumi's jugular vein and then proceeded to stab him in the neck with the same kunai. Megumi looked at him uncaringly "So dyeing like a gutted pig, why am I not surprised?" She looked at Igarashi "check on him," she said motioning towards Ogidō "then join one of the other fights." Izumi watched as both Megumi and Igarashi left, he felt cold as his warm blood and his life spilled out of his body, the snow around him had now taken a red hue, as he felt death slowly claiming him he prayed his family would survive somehow.

Yue jumped back after a kunai battle with Rikū, she had to live no matter what to warn the others about the betrayal, she flashed threw the necessary hands and released her attack creating many dragonflies, made of ice that quickly flew towards Rikū, while the man was attempting to counter her attacks she threw two kunai with explosive tags to either side of his head, Rikū had a triumphant look on his face after he dealt with her jutsu, one that quickly turned to horror when he noticed the kunais with explosive tags, he let out a small gasp as the tags exploded with a resounding boom that echoed threw out the forest, bits and pieces of Rikū's head were scattered all around, small pieces of his brain could be seen on the snow, only a stump remained where his head had once been.

Yue looked around her, Ganju was on even ground with his opponent even wounded and Takahiro had managed to slice of Kajōmaru's head and was now dealing with Hayami. _Good we can win this after all, I can still warn sensei._ Yue looked onwards seeing her sensei wife approaching her, Igarashi was heading towards Takahiro and she could see in the distance Izumi and Ogidō's on the ground_. Damn it_. She let out a small breath and quickly pulled out her sword moving a few feet back to have more space for the battle to come, now she would have to fight her hardest battle yet, with a person she had admired, and that now was a traitor, her sensei's words about steeling her heart returned to her, she waited for the now traitor to make her move. None of people fighting noticed the pale forms that roomed threw the forest around them.

Ganju managed to remove the kunai from his arm and was now holding his own against his opponent, Minamoto attempted a quick sword swipe, rather then dodge Ganju blocked the blade with a kunai, he smiled, Minamoto must have believed that Ganju's right arm was too wounded to still be used, Ganju disappointed him as threw gritted teeth he delivered a hard bloodied fist to Minamoto's chest. Minamoto staggered back as he lost his breath, it was all the time Ganju needed as he delivered a hard boot stomp to Minamoto's right knee that brought the man down. Falling on his left knee Minamoto let go of his blade and Ganju grabbed the man's head and delivered a vicious knee strike to the man's chin, quickly using the kunai in his left hand he shoved it into Minamoto's face just below the ear and let his opponent fall down on his backside. Ganju quickly grabbed the man's sword and stabbed him threw his left eye bringing his full weight on the sword, feeling as the blade sliced threw Minamoto's flesh and bone than meeting the frozen ground. He got up and looked at the body of his fallen enemy, it wasn't pretty, fights often weren't, but it was over, he looked over and saw his former nee-chan battling his cousin's student, they seemed to be even, he had no idea what he would tell his cousin about her actions, farther away he could see Takahiro battling Igarashi and Hayami, as much as he didn't like the man he wasn't going to let the man face off against those two alone, he would help deal with those two then help Yue deal with the last traitor. Ganju never saw the icicle shard that came from the woods to his left, it hit him in his left temple managing to reach his brain, Ganju only managed to take the first step he had intended before he fell into the snow blood pooling from him.

Yue's wait was short lived as she and Megumi quickly began to clash using their swords, the noise from the clashes quickly echoed threw out the forest, both combatants tried to slash each other and both failed as they countered each other's blows. Both of them tightened their grips on their swords and charged each other again, Megumi brought her sword down in a powerful horizontal slash and Yue managed to block it with a vertical slash of her own, the force of the two blows sent a small shockwave threw out the forest near them.

Yue backed away and using her free hand formed the necessary hand signs and sent out her attack creating many ice dragonflies that flew forward towards Megumi who stabbing her sword in the ground to her left flashed threw her own hand signs and created a large wall of snow in front of her that blocked the attack. Yue stabbed her sword into the ground and threw several kunais with explosive tags towards the right and left of the new snow wall, sending a few above it and towards it as well. The defense of the wall was good but it was not perfect, a hard or drilling impact technique could puncture the wall and since the technique only guarded against frontal attacks, the enemy could easily attack from the side or even from above as she now did. Yue's eyes widened when she noticed several more snow walls arise from behind the first wall that managed to defend against her attack, with another one coming straight at her, _damn it I didn't know she could do that!_ Yue quickly went threw a few hand signs and created a wall of her own to defend herself, the two forces slammed into each other and broke apart, Yue barely had time to grab her sword before she was forced to block a sword swipe from in front of her delivered by Megumi who had charged threw the snow. Yue cursed, she needed to gain the advantage against her opponent, a thought crossed her mind and she smiled, it was a low blow but it would do the trick.

"Megumi-san I want you to know that I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what Yue-chan? Lusting after my husband?"

"No, I'm sorry that you are right."

"I knew it! You little"

Yue could tell that Megumi was now hysterical; she only needed a small push now. "But what I'm not sorry about is the night I spent with sensei, wrapped in his strong arms laying on his chiseled chest; I will never regret how he moaned my name."

"You little fucking bitch!" Megumi charged in an enraged state which gave her far more strength but it also showed an opening in her form, an opening that Yue took advantage off, after managing to dodge a sword slash from Megumi, Yue got passed her defenses and made a move to take her head off, Megumi managed to keep her head on her shoulders but the blade sliced into her face spreading open her right cheek, from her lips to her ear showing her teeth. Both combatants were momentarily shocked of the injury but Yue recovered first and attempted to end the battle only for Megumi to jump back to gain more space, Yue still managed to land a small blow on Megumi that sent to woman farther back. After Megumi hit the ground she scampered away from Yue clutching her face and cursing. Yue began to advance towards Megumi when something caught her attention or rather the lack of something, _Ganju!,_ she looked around and couldn't see him, her eyes widened when she noticed his body in the a red puddle on the ground, a brief look towards Takahiro revealed that the man was down on the ground with a sword sticking out of his stomach and a few feet away only Igarashi was still standing.

Yue cursed herself for not dealing with Megumi faster, _perhaps then more would have lived,_ her hand was going towards her kunais, when her instincts flared up once more, she made a motion to dodge something that was coming from behind her, she let out a small breath as something cold pierced her right shoulder and she fell face first onto the ground, her lips breaking as they met the frozen earth. Yue cast a quick glance to her right shoulder where it was revealed that she had an ice shard imbedded in it, she painfully managed to get back up and looked around the battlefield, shadows had emerged from the darkness of the woods, they were tall, gaunt and hard as old bones, their flesh seemed to change color as it slowly changed from pale as milk to a blue that Yue could swear was from the heart of ice, their armor seemed to change color as they moved as well; for some it was white as new-fallen snow, others a light blue, a few black as shadow, but all seemed to be marked with many spots with the deep grey-green color of the trees.

Igarashi stood petrified as one of the creatures neared her, Yue attempted to warn her but the words wouldn't leave her mouth as if they were afraid to leave the safety of her throat. The creature slid forward on silent feet, it had a longsword like none other that Yue had ever seen, and she knew there was no metal in that blade. The blade seemed thin, it was almost translucent, the blade all but vanished when seen edge-on, she could all but feel the sharpness of the blade and it's icy touch. The creature raised the blade in front of Igarashi and then swiftly brought it down in a vertical slash, the blade all but vanished for a few moments, when the creature brought the blade back to it's side it had a red tint to it. Yue wasn't sure what the creature had done, _could it have missed?_ However a few moments later Yue got her answer, a small bit of blood began to spill from Igarashi's forehead and mouth, Igarashi began to move her hand to touch her forehead, her hand never got there as blood began to spill from her chest and her body split into two having been eviscerated by the creature. Steam seemed to rise from Igarashi's body as her warm blood came into contact with the cold air, the creature near the corpse hissed and took a step back.

Another one of those creatures moved towards Megumi blade drawn, who grabbed her blade with both hands exposing her injury to the cold, showing her torn flesh, teeth and dripping blood. Megumi looked at the creature before she stabbed her sword in the ground next to her and flashing threw hand signs to send a wall of snow towards the creature who stood still. The wall of snow hit the creature head on, but it was like the ocean waves hitting the rocky shore, it broke apart with not even a scratch on the creature. _Of course not that thing is made of ice!_

Yue saw how Megumi grabbed her own sword and charged the creature who's pale sword came shivering through the air, when the blades met, there was no sound of metal on metal; only a thin sound from the edge of hearing, Yue couldn't place the exact sound. Megumi kept trying to slash the creature swinging her sword only for the creature to counter each blow. Megumi took a step back, then unleashed another flurry of slashes desperately trying to land a blow, Yue could see more and more openings in her form, she knew Megumi's end was near. All around them the creatures stood patient, faceless, silent, the shifting patterns of their delicate armor making them all but invisible in the wood. Yet they made no move to interfere.

Time and time again the swords met, Yue felt frozen she wanted to charge in and aid Megumi with the creature and yet she stood still, she was afraid she realised that the creatures would all attack if she interfiered. Whenever the blades clashed Yue all but felt that sound in her bones, a wisper of something sinister, slithering it's way towards her.

Yue could see that Megumi was panting heavely from the effort, her breath steaming, the fight before and her injury only worsend things for her. Again Megumi tried to slash the creature but overextended herself and with a quick move the creature's pale sword bit threw Megumi's armor and cut off her right arm off just bellow the elbow. Megumi let out an agonizing cry and blood poured from her wound and steamed in the cold, Megumi quickly clutched her stump.

The creature said something in a language that Yue did not understand; it's voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, it advanced towards Megumi who appeared paralyzed before the thing and looked to have accepted her inevitable fate. The creature neared Megumi until it stood in front of her and raised one of it's clawed hands with jagged like fingers, a gust of wind blew and everything seemed silent before the creature shoved it's hand into Megumi's stomach, Megumi let out a small cry, a few moments later the creature ripped out its hand from her stomach and dragged Megumi's intestines with it spilling them on the frozen ground. Megumi desperately tried to cover the hole in her stomach and fell to her knees, the creature let out a shriek and Megumi looked up towards it where she saw the clawed hand descendent upon her again. The creatures arm pierced Megumi's chest with a sickening crack, the sound of bones being broken and flesh being torn filled the air once more, the creature seemed to pump something within Megumi's body as she turned a deathly pale with the veins in her face becoming a visible white, a few moments later the creature removed its hand and Megumi's broken body fell limply to the ground.

Yue had watched petrified as everything unfolded and now she realised it was her turn, as the creatures slowly turned towards her, one of them began advancing in her direction with its blade drawn. Yue used her left hand and clutched her sword, her thoughts flew to the old tales, how she had been terrified of meeting one of these creatures during her first trip to the wall. She didn't know how she would deal with these creatures, she couldn't overpower them physically, her techniques was hampered by her injury and she couldn't taunt these creatures, Yue gritted her teeth, at the very least she intended to take one of these creatures with her and make this battle cost them. "Let's dance!" Yue shouted.

She leaped forward and began to battle the creature, sword slash after slash followed, Yue tried every sword stance her sensei had taught her and at every point she found her blows being parried, she tried to slash the creature's legs, arms, chest, even took the advice from crazy old man Yagimi, _when in doubt go for the eyes!._ Nothing seemed to work against the creature who parried each blow, worse she could see her sword, the same sword who's forging had been done with precious metal that had cost her dearly, that she had taken great care of slowly being chipped away, with every clash of the swords, her own blade lost a piece of itself.

Yue charged forward again the creature's parry had gotten lazy, she just need one chance, that came when the creature's parry came a moment too late, Yue managed a sword slash upon the creature's chest, the noise made from when her sword meet the creatures icy flesh sounded like ice breaking mixed with nailes being dragged on a chalkboard. The creatures anguished howls sounded threw out the forest and Yue knew that with the pain was mixed a howl of utter shock. A large cut could be seen on the creatures chest with a white substance slowly dripping from it_. A cut!_ "So you do bleed! You're not immortal!" Yue suddenly felt a fire ignite within herself.

The creature brought it's sword towards Yue who began to dodge as best as she could, her sensei's word sounding in her head. _It doesn't matter if the enemy is taller or stronger they can still die, just find a weak point and strike, it they don't have one then make one yourself, draw the battle out make them feel superior then when they lower their guard strike hard. _

One sword blow Yue couldn't dodge properly and brought her blade to parry it when the blades touched her's shattered, a silent scream that echoed through the forest night left Yue's mouth, she had less then half of her blade left. Her opponents blade was emmbeded in the ground from force of the earlier blow, she didn't hesitate Yue threw what was left of her sword in the air above her, then as quickly as she could flashed threw a short series of handsigns, _chances are at this range it is going to hurt me as well, _for a moment Yue looked into the creature's eyes; they were blue, a deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice, a moment later she unleashed her attack, a fire jutsu, the Phoenix Sage Fire Technique that created a volley of small fireballs, which were sent flying in an unpredictable manner assaulting her enemy, with the close range all the attacks hit the creature head on eliciting another round of howls from the creature, she was hit with the a small aftershock wave of the attack but she didn't care. Grabbing her falling sword Yue lunged and stabbed the creature in its chest that now appeared to be melting and caved in at some parts, if her blade had a few more centimeters she would have managed to stab the creature in the face. The creature seemed ready to fall on her and its head was a few centimeters away from her; Yue knew she couldn't let the occasion slip by. Yue grabbed a kunai from her pouch and prayed that its metal could cut threw the enemy, the gods she reckoned, were fickle tonight as the kunai shattered when it made contact with the creatures cheek. She quickly used the back side and hit the creature in the face making contact with its nose, a mistake she realized too late as when her hand made contact with the creature's face her hand felt as if her blood had turned to ice. Trying to get away as quickly as she could Yue used a strategy that she had used in the past, it was common for her, nothing special, she used her enemy's body to jump of to put some distance between the two, it was her last mistake. As soon as Yue's feet made contact with the creature's stomach Yue felt like she had been plunged into the coldest river, threw gritted teeth Yue managed to throw herself away from the enemy, with the loss of feeling in her legs Yue couldn't land as she planned and she quickly found herself hitting the ground, the ice shard embedded in her shoulder plunging threw her body and emerging from her chest, she coughed blood as pain filled her senses.

Yue struggled to open her eyes, painfully and with effort she managed to fully open them and looked on as the creatures now surrounded her, she noticed the one she had fought with still had her sword embedded in its chest, a white substance dripping from her sword slash, its chest looked caved in with the same substance pouring from its other wounds, the creature looked on its last leg as well. _Something to remember me by_. Yue's last thoughts were of her beloved sister, little Fubuki with her bubble gum pink hair and her spring green eyes, of her sensei and friends, she could only feel pity for them, they were unaware of this threat, the old legends were true, the ice ones had returned and now her country would fall to them, she heard a small shriek before the ice one's clawed hands descendent upon her and began to tear into her body.

* * *

Review away

Constructive criticism or pointing out possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

Check out the poll on my page and the forum where the other polls are.

The Ten Commandments of Reviewing - created by FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D, post them if you agree and use them yourself

1) Thou shalt point out the parts you enjoy  
2) Thou shalt point out the parts you disliked, if any.  
3) Thou shalt point out the parts you utterly hated and explain why  
4) Thou shalt write with good grammar!  
5) Thou shalt not give annonymous reviews, for the authors might want to reply to thine criticism!  
6) Thou shalt not flame  
7) Thou shalt write a four sentence paragraph minimum!  
8) Thou shalt use constructive criticism!  
9) Thou shalt review as much as possible, not merely once!  
10) Thou shalt voice thine expectations

* * *

Chapter 4

Finally some fight scenes! Critique on the fight scenes is wanted and appreciated. Not sure how well they turned out, I was hoping for some more bang. Well it's another brick laid down, hopefully one day I can write that great fight scene for Flash Goddess.

If you know from where I got the inspiration for the last part and could spot the similarities, congratulation you have great taste, that also means that you are part of the club that's hoping and praying the man can get the last books out before he drops dead from old age or a heart attack.

So apparently even with no new chapter, after posting the SOPA message, Flash Goddess got more reviews than all my other fics combined….. sigh, of course it did, not sure why I'm surprised at this point.


	5. Chapter 5 : Plans set in stone

**I do not own Naruto, ****if I did Tsunade would not be crying about how she doesn't have any chakra left while keeping her henge active**

Talk now – normal talk  
_What now__ – normal thoughts_  
**Speak – biju, higher being talk**  
_**Listen**_**_ – biju, higher being thoughts_**

**Chapter 5 : Plans set in stone**

When Naruto woke up in his old room with Sayaka near his bedside he couldn't help but let out a yell of pure joy, he quickly jumped towards Sayaka attempting to envelope her in a hug. Sayaka warmly smiled and hugged him tightly.

"I'm glad your back Naruto-kun."

Naruto nodded not breaking the hug.

"We both are."

Naruto turned around seeing a smiling Yukimura leaning against the door, while Sayaka still held onto to him tightly, Yukimura came closer and ruffled his hair.

"Glad your back."

"It's good to be back. I don't like it out there" his face took a scowl "the people look at me with those cold eyes and their glares seems constant no matter where I go."

"It's alright now Naruto-kun." Sayaka kissed him on the top of his head.

Yukimura let out a sigh "Sadly it will take a long time to change that."

Naruto nodded and smiled as Sayaka began to play with his hair. "I know, it's just" he paused for a moment and shifted uncomfortably "everything feels so dark and depressing out there."

Yukimura bit his lip "We'll see what we can do to help you make some friends."

"Do you think I'll be able?" he asked looking at both Yukimura and Sayaka individually.

"Of course, Naruto-kun" Sayaka gently squeezed his shoulder with her free hand.

"Sayaka's right, it will be a bit difficult to find a real friend, but not impossible."

Naruto nodded.

"Now I heard someone's goal is freedom?" Yukimura asked in an amused tone of voice.

"Yeah" Naruto chuckled and tried to rub the back of his head with his hand only to be stopped by Sayaka who was still playing with his hair.

Yukimura smiled "The question is what kind of freedom you desire"

Naruto quickly cut in "Of the chains that hold me down"

"Oh?" Yukimura had an amused look on his face "Philosophical aren't we."

Naruto laughed and this time was able to scratch the back of his head. "I want to be free of Konoha and the label they've branded me with."

Yukimura nodded. "It will be difficult in the long run, most of the villagers will be against you and others that will discover what you hold" Naruto quickly responded. "Nothing worth having is easy to obtain."

Sayaka hugged him again. "I think someone's reading is paying off."

Naruto laughed a bit before he stopped remembering his new situation. "I can't even read any books in that place the Hokage gave me, I missed this place and the library here is huge"

Yukimura coughed awkwardly. _Best you don't know how large it is, I'll keep the smut section locked, no matter how much Sayaka may insist otherwise. _

Sayaka snarled "Don't get me started on that place; it is a dump, and giving you an apartment on the top floor? The old man must be insane." The last words held more anger in them.

"It has potential" Yukimura countered "eventually when the other people move out we could expand, and make the place bigger, of course it will take a while and we will need to be careful about how we go about it."

"Why would they move out?" Naruto asked before a flicker of realization passed over his eyes. "Oh because I live there" he finished in a depressed tone.

"Ignore them Naruto-kun. Eventually you will have your own place to call home."

"It's just" Naruto stooped unsure of how to continue "that I like this place, when you leave will this realm be destroyed?" he asked looking at Yukimura who grimaced. "Yes, I can sustain it for a while, but in the end it will be destroyed."

"There is some good news Naruto-kun."

"There is?" he asked in a hopeful tone.

"Yes, while Yukimura still doesn't have all of his memories back, there are bits and pieces that suggest that there are other continents out there, we could try to send you there when he's back to full power, or at the very least help make your journey there a lot easier."

"That would be great." New hope seemed to blossom in him now.

"I thought about taking you to a different world than this one when we leave, but sadly there are far too many complications to it."

"Is traveling that difficult?" Naruto had been curious about the subject.

"It's difficult to establish a connection to a different world, traveling there also has its own issues, but the problems are represented by the differences for life on those worlds."

"Don't humans exist there as well, if you came from one of those worlds?" he enquired.

Yukimura nodded. "That's just it, in my world there was a substance in the atmosphere and that was absorbed into the peoples bodies, because of that we gained a few more organs and it was what allowed some of us to gain and use special abilities, similar to how shinobi have chakra, the only reason I could still use my own ability after leaving my world was because I had stored quit a bit of it during my lifetime and the different magic arts I discovered during my trips."

Naruto nodded absorbing what Yukimura said until he heard the last two words and his eyes bulged. "Magic exists?"

Both Yukimura and Sayaka smiled "In my world and in other worlds yes, what did you think we used around here and when I found out who was in the room with you back in Konoha?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders "Um, god powers?"

Yukimura chuckled "God powers are magic on a far larger scale, think of it as comparing a puddle to an ocean, oh you can use the water in the puddle to do something, but it pales in comparison to a tsunami that an ocean can unleash."

"Can I ever use magic?"

"Yes"

Naruto's eyes widened "Really? That sounds great" his face took on an inquisitive look "Why don't you teach me then, is there some sort of problem?"

Yukimura nodded "There are a few problems that could pose a risk."

Sayaka gently led Naruto back on the bed and went next to Yukimura before answering his question "First it would be that as a future ninja you must learn to use chakra, the teachings related to chakra encourages people to train both their body and their mind, sadly with magic some have a tendency to only train their minds over their bodies."

Naruto nodded. _I suppose it makes sense, but there's probably something more_. "And the other reasons?" he asked looking at the two who were giving each other strange looks.

Yukimura in the end was the one who answered. "If magic hasn't been used in a very long time, and you start using it, there is a chance that you could get unwanted attention from some of the supernatural creatures still out there, worst case you end up waking one up if you use magic near its place of slumber."

Naruto bit his lip "That doesn't sound good at all."

Yukimura waved his hand in a dismissive manner "Don't worry about it for now, on the bright side we have been working on some chakra control exercises for you to use"

"Really?" Naruto's eyebrows furrowed "But won't it arouse suspicion if I'm seen practicing them."

"Don't worry about that Naruto-kun, it is something we have taken into account, these exercises are rather simple while still being very effective and involve more meditation and focus then anything else, once your guards are recalled we will be able to teach you the more advanced ones, hopefully by then we can create other new ones as well." Sayaka placed a finger to her chin and smiled "A few techniques can actually be done while in bed and pretending to be asleep, to help shrug of suspicion."

Naruto smiled and nodded before he remembered something Yukimura had told him the day he arrived to his apartment. "You mentioned that there were seals in my new home?"

Yukimura's face took a serious expression "Yes, there was an Anbu hiding in the shadows, there are also some seals on the walls of the room and upon most of your cloths."

"What?!" he yelled "Then the old man really did set me up!"

Yukimura nodded and took a seat near the bed. "Yes, yes he did" Yukimura rubbed his chin "at first I thought that there was a chance that the seals were just tracking seals, that however changed when I detected someone watching you and a few of the seals flared. I believe they are a combination of tracking seals and monitoring ones that use some sort of device that allows the Hokage to literally watch what you're doing."

Anger swelled up inside of him. "That, that…." Naruto let out a breath and calmed himself down "so what do we do about it?"

Yukimura smiled "Plans within plans Naruto, once we find out to what the seals are tied to we can use them to our advantage."

Naruto nodded quickly thinking about their conversation before he furrowed his eyebrows once more remembering a something from it. "You never mentioned the other problems with leaving this world."

"Ah, yes," Yukimura rubbed the back of his head "it is rather complicated, to explain the exact mechanics of traveling to another world would take a very long time, heck just getting past what protection the other world may or may not have to keep others out is a tricky matter. One thing is that we would need to find a world, where you can actually live and would be able to have children one day."

"Is such a world rare?" _The differences can't be that big._

"As mentioned before, my home world had a substance that allowed us to use magic, now if your body has chakra in it and produces it and the air itself in the other world if filled with this substance that seeps into your body and changes it, what do you think would happen if you went there."

Naruto's eye bulged again. "I could die, or suffer immensely because of it! The two types of energy may end up clashing together inside of me."

Yukimura sighed and nodded with face marred with sadness. "Unfortunately yes, there's no telling what may happen in such a world."

A quick though struck him and he asked in a frightened tone "But what about the magic in this world, if you said I can use it, then it's different somehow right?"

"Don't be afraid Naruto-kun, people here have the potential to use magic by unlocking it from within, here there is no substance in the atmosphere that is the cause of it."

Naruto let out a relieved breath "So I wouldn't be able to visit worlds like that then"

"You could visit, but even that would have it's own risks, the other issues, are that your body may be a bit to different from the other people, they could have some more red blood cells in comparison to you, at a genetic level, you could be different then them. Heck in some worlds the air itself is different, and it would result in you having difficulty in simply breathing; children in those worlds would also be out of the question."

"Is it that bad out there?" he asked, things looked painted to form a rather depressing picture.

Yukimura had a thoughtful look on his face "Not necessarily bad, just different."

Sayaka gently squeezed his shoulder and smiled. "Naruto-kun, there are countless worlds out there, and it would take years to search threw them and even then some would require us to travel there for closer inspection, it's why training you to survive here has become a greater priority then before."

Naruto sighed "All right, I understand."

"Don't be sad Naruto-kun;" Sayaka smile seemed so warm to him "there is still hope for that, faint as it may be."

Naruto nodded "Yeah, I thought that this could still happen."

Yukimura let out a sigh "We'll do what we can, but you must keep in mind that you may end up living in this world for the rest of your life."

"Ok." He let out a resigned sigh of his own.

"It doesn't mean that you'll have to live in Konoha for the rest of your life, just for a time, we'll search for a way for you to leave this continent and get to another one." He looked towards Naruto and smiled "But in the mean time you'll have to make some sort of life for yourself in Konoha. Remember home is where the heart is."

Naruto nodded.

Yukimura padded Naruto on the head. "Cheer up even with its problems this world isn't that bad, from I remember there aren't any dark gods here, no one trying to turn the world into a charnel or needing skulls for a skull throne."

Naruto's eye bulged again and he retreated further onto the bed. "There was that kind of world?"

"You're scaring him." Sayaka hissed, she quickly moved and enveloped him in a protective embrace.

Yukimura looked to regret uttering those words and waved his hands in a reassuring manner. "There was, but I took care of those gods, so calm down and don't worry."

"You're sure they're dead for good?" after getting a nod from Yukimura he calmed down. "Ok, I'll try to get some people on my side to make life easier; I don't think I'll be able to make friends anytime soon."

"Yes, you will Naruto-kun it'll just take a while longer." Sayaka tightened her embrace.

"She's right" Sayaka gave Yukimura a look that screamed We already knew that "don't doubt it for even a second." Yukimura smiled "How about we go sledding again and then talk about your plans and training afterwards?"

Naruto nodded "Ok, that'd be nice, how long can I stay here this time?"

"Not as long as before and the time will vary as well. Now you should change clothes and get ready Naruto"

"Hai"

Sayaka released Naruto from he embrace and he quickly got down of the bed, both Yukimura and Sayaka quickly left the room as Naruto began to search threw his drawer for different clothes.

* * *

As soon as the door closed to Naruto's room, Sayaka turned towards Yukimura. "So what do you think?"

Yukimura had a thoughtful look on his face "We can make things work" he responded in a firm tone of voice.

Sayaka nodded "Indeed, the road is just as hard as we imagined, he will need strong allies for the wars." Sayaka could all but see the gears turning in Yukimura's head.

"There were a few faces I noticed in the first vision of the future; the later ones have also revealed quite a few others."

"Yes, there were a few interesting ones, having him become friends with them and gently pushing their training ahead, could gain him some stronger allies for the eventual conflicts."

The thoughtful look never left Yukimura's face. "Especially if we add to it as well"

"You want us to reveal ourselves?" she asked in a surprised tone of voice.

"Not necessarily. If he mentions how he was accesses to some of the Kyuubi's memories and has gained knowledge of some fighting styles and techniques that he can teach them, it wouldn't directly involve meeting us."

Sayaka nodded. "But it would lend credence to his teachings" she brought her hand to her chin in a thoughtful manner "well, that's one way to go about doing things, and it does have some advantages."

"True, there was one person I think he would be able to approach early on and get her on his side; it would require our intervention to aid her before she is lost."

"Oh?" she asked intrigued, the number of people wasn't that high, realization quickly struck her and she nodded "Well she does have potential; we will need to watch carefully for when the incident occurs."

"Yes" Yukimura smiled "now let's have some fun."

* * *

Six torches lit the otherwise dark room, four in each corner of the room and another two near an old fashioned wooden desk were a person sat behind, upon the desk several scrolls, a map and a shogi board with the a few pieces moved could be seen. Five people stood in a kneeling position, each person wore black shinobi clothing with a black cloak, forehand and shin protectors and were armed with a tip-less tantō. Every person had featureless white masks on their faces. Behind the desk sat a person who appeared to be a frail, old man, he had black shaggy hair, and his right eye was bandaged. The man had an x-shaped scar on his chin, he wore a white shirt, with a black robe over the top of it covering from his feet, to just over his right shoulder.

The man picked up a scroll of the desk, "Agent 33" one of the persons kneeling on the floor arose and took the scroll he was handed, the person, who had short spiky black hair, nodded and went back to his position. The mission would require the use of certain styles of executions in order to create the impression that the bandit gang problems near the border with the lower countries were far worse than they actually were.

The man picked up another scroll "Agent 41" a different person, a woman with short black hair arose and took the scroll she was handed. This mission would require the squad to set off several attacks within the country in order to influence several people on the continuous need for shinobi protection.

"Agent 45" the exchange was as fast as before, a girl with brown hair arose and took the scroll this time. The squad would travel to different places in the lower countries and would use many small acts of violence and terror to cause social unrest, then that unrest would blossom into war and people would begin to kill each, if the conditions weren't right they would further help things along. A few of the agents would slip in and pretend to be civilians during the eventual demonstrations that would occur and attack the soldiers used to contain them to give a reason for the soldiers to crack down on them, while others would slip in amongst the soldiers and retaliate at the first chance, or if need be, start the violence themselves.

"Agent 92", The Land of Sea still had problems with some rebels and one of the men in power planned to destroy a medical clinic and blame the rebels; using the attack as a justification for further violence against the rebels. _Considering the geography of the country with its islands and the nature of some of the trade it does it isn't surprising that conflict would arise._

"Agent 134" a man arose and quickly picked the scroll before kneeling back down, one of his greatest plans, setting up one of these to trigger increased tensions between The Land of Earth and The Land of Valleys, Wind and Stone. The Land of Valleys was still tied to the Land of Earth in many ways, even with its so called independence. The plan was to have an assassin kill an important pro-independence political figure during an independence rally, thus turning him into a martyr for the independence movement, while at the same time having agitators in the crowds incite violence and riots, in order to push the land further toward favoring independence and thus toward conflict. His men would leave clues behind that shinobi were involved, with the uneasy relationships between Iwa, Suna and hidden boulder village, it would create even more tension between the three.

"What are you?" The man intoned, his voice firm.

All of the people chanted in a monotonous voice. "The unseen ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth."

No emotion passed over the man's face. "Who are you?"

"Root, we have no name. We have no feelings. We have no past. We have no future. There is only the mission."

"Dismissed"

"Yes, Danzo-sama"

Once the room was empty Danzo looked over the map of the continent, he never doubted what he did, and he knew it was the right thing, even those in power knew it. He would send his agents to cause trouble in other countries to ensure that they keep fighting each other and seek to hire Konoha, he would even commit acts of terrorism and sabotage against Fire Country for the betterment of Konoha, to secure more contracts and keep things sharp in the country, everything he ever did was for the betterment of Konoha.

A brief memory flashed threw his mind, of a man dressed in blue samurai like armor. _One way to weaken two factions is to assassinate one of their important figures while under the guise of the other faction, then let the two fight it out, while you wait and observe the situation play out, when an opportunity presents itself from this situation you would simply have to take it. The two sides would decrease their own manpower, and open themselves up for an attack, new territory could be gained far more easily, either way the two sides would be weakened._ He grunted as he returned his view towards the map._ A shame that many have forgotten the Nidaime's wise words._ Danzo's lone eye turned towards Suna, Iwa and the smaller countries that stood between them and Konoha.

Two years ago Suna after a scandal with Iwa over the loss of a promising jounin of theirs, had in secret attempted to pit Konoha against Iwa, they had to intervene to aid Konoha and snatch up land only after Konoha had spilled its blood in weakening Iwa. Something that he couldn't allow to occur, Konoha would have lost more then it would have gained, a few brief moves on his part ended their ploy and managed to set them back, a few clues left behind ensured that the Hokage would be more wary towards Suna. Danzo's eye moved towards Ame. _A pity that the deal with Hanzo did not materialize, Konoha could have had a true Hokage. At the very least things on that front are locked in a struggle that will keep Ame out of the political arena for the future. _

Danzo shifted his gaze towards Konoha. _More and more elements are coming together to form the perfect storm for my ascension to the title of Hokage. Orochimaru will play his part and help eliminate Hiruzen, perhaps Hiruzen may yet manage to wound Orochimaru badly enough for me to finish the latter of, either way when he attacks the village a few of my agents will ensure that more damage is dealt to show the full impact Hiruzen's philosophy has brought to the village, the destruction of some of the Hokage faces on the mountain will aid in raising outrage against the attackers and the leadership that allowed such a thing to occur. The tension with both the Uchiha and Kurama clans is steadily growing; all it needs is someone to stroke the fires to ensure it continues and inevitably adds another black mark on Hiruzen's record. The Kurama clan may yet see things my way and aid in me in my bid for the title of Hokage. Perhaps I may yet be able to recruit a few Uchiha's as well into my army with the tension. _

Danzo leaned back into his chair; he would soon start to recruit children for his army from Konoha's clans, one Yamanaka with great potential had already been recruited thanks to his aid inside of the clan. A few agents of his would search the nearby towns for children with potential, while only a handful would search in the lower countries. As Danzo got up from the chair he cast his gaze towards the shogi board_. Already the pieces are in play, Orochimaru, my agents, tension in Konoha, they are all creating the perfect storm for my ascension to my rightful place, one were I will guide Konoha as its Hokage and unify the shinobi nations under one empire, thus ending the possibility of any future war between the shinobi nations and bringing peace and stability to the land. _

* * *

The cold night wind could be heard as it howled outside, the inside of the cave was warmed by numerous fires, with sheets and other materials used to create rooms for the people, small cracks in the walls were used to air the place and ensure the people did not die from the smoke.

Beige sheets tied around together with three wooded pillars formed the main entrance to a particularly large room, on the inside an old fashioned rug with dark red and yellow colors could be found on the floor, two large metal pans with fire in them were placed on either side of the room. Along the torches were placed to help illuminate the place, near the walls chests of various sizes could be found, towards the end of the room was a large oak table with books, scrolls and maps placed upon it. Near the table stood an elderly man, even with his advanced age the man was well toned, he stood at moderate six feet, had a light skin tone, a rectangular face, the man had short white hair, a few patches of an earthly brown could still be seen from his youth. His straight hair revealed a lean, gloomy expression, heavy gray eyes that looked to have seen horrors born of the darkest pits were set sunken within their sockets, a beard charmingly complimented his nose and mouth and left a beautiful memory of his past. The way the man held himself still spoke of a martial prowess that was not to be underestimated, he seemed to radiate authority and his presence demanded respect. The man wore an opened dark brown battle robe, light brown shirt and pants, black boots and a black undershirt that could be seen from his color, a dark blue sword sheath was barely visible on his right side.

"Enter" he sounded as if it carried the weight of the world.

The beige sheets were parted as an elder woman with curly grey hair and grey bandages that covered her lower face from the nose down dressed in a black kimono and an undistinguishable middle aged man dressed in a dark green battle kimono entered the room. They both stopped in front of the man and bowed slightly; the man looked at the two and made a small sign for them to rise.

"Report"

The middle aged man brought out from a pocket of his clothes several small scrolls tied together by a thin red string and handed them to the elderly man. "Our agents have managed to get closer to their objectives, in a few years they will be in the positions we need them to help distribute our gift" the man had a small crooked smile "the infighting amongst their nobles allows us better cover to move behind from, it is fortunate that they seem more interested in fighting each then doing their jobs, as long as one appears meek and submissive our agents jobs are secure."

The elderly man simply nodded. "The doctor?"

"Has agreed to join us, once we are certain of his loyalty we will allow him to look over our creation and see how he can help to improve it" the man's crooked smile only grew larger "already it is quite the nasty piece of work."

"Acceptable" he handed the middle aged man a scroll from the desk, "Have our people begin searching for the sannin Orochimaru, with his betrayal of Konoha he may yet become a valuable pawn in the future."

The other two people scowled but said nothing their leader had a plan and would not pursue such a course of action without thinking it threw, the middle aged man took the scroll bowed and left the room.

The aged man turned towards the woman that gave him a small scroll from one of her sleeves, the woman spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Their training is going well and the others are in good shape considering their age and our ...conditions."

The elder man's thin lips formed a small barely noticeable smile. _Even with everything that has occurred our people remain strong._

"I have found a child with potential for that role."

The man's flat eyebrows rose in surprise, _the child must have potential for her to approach the subject._ He nodded.

"Hidero." The woman called out.

A small young boy entered, he looked frail, was bald and wore rags stitched together, the boy quickly bowed to the elderly man.

"Do you know what you shall become if you survive?"_  
_

"A weapon of vengeance for my people"

He looked into the boy's eyes; he could see steel in them. The man threw a weapon from his robes at the ground in front of the boy; it was an extremely long kunai that lacked a ring at the end.

"What is that?"

The boy's eyes widened as he looked at the weapon "Our traditional weapon, a part of our heritage"

"You will forsake that weapon if you continue, as will you forsake your heritage."

"I will do whatever is needed for my people's revenge."

The man simply looked at boy for a moment longer, _in other times the boy could have become a true leader for our people_, during the initiation ritual the boy would be immersed in an oily bath and would be covered from head to toe in black and red tattoos. If he survived long enough, new agonizing tattoos would be applied to him to show his success and complete dedication to his cause. He cast one final glance at the boy."Have him go threw the trial."

Both of the two bowed and exited the room.

The man went and sat down behind the table, looking over it, _even with the others that have been wronged like us and have joined us, we don't have the strength needed to win in an all out fight, the only choice is one last great battle to the death, to wound our enemies as much as we can and have our wounds lead to their death. _He picked up a book from the table that was bound in leather of various types and had three metal clasps and a small blue bookmark that could be seen within it. The spine and corners of the book were of strange black leather, while the rest of it had a brown color that was faded in a few places, often he could make out strange shadowy faces in agony gazing upwards at him upon its cover.

The man touched the book's cover, it wasn't like any leather he had ever felt in his life, it felt all but human to the touch. He slowly opened the book again, it had given him nightmares the likes of which he believed only the horrors of war could match, even so it potentially held the key to his peoples revenge, he needed to find the temple mentioned in the book, he needed to find the scroll mentioned in it. The book had come into his possession by accident; after his people found a trading caravan that was under attack they aided them under the guise of simple mercenaries.

The merchants were so glad for their aid that they gave them what little they could spare, it was one of the merchants that gave his people the book, it had come into his possession from a deceased distant relative and the man had been unable to sell it but mentioned that it should have value as it appeared rather ancient, the man valued his life more and was willing to part with it as a sign of gratitude for his people's intervention. The merchant didn't know how right he had been about the book it was written in an old language, his people had given him the book once they returned and he had been curious of what the book held and began to translate it. The act had taken a great deal of time but the book had caught his attention and aroused his curiosity, as time went by and he made progress with the translation he realized just how old the book truly was, something from the lost ages. His people had found a few of the shrines mentioned in it and one of the temples, but it had been mostly destroyed, if he could find the others he knew the scroll that would deliver their vengeance would be there. As the man began working on translating the book, he made a promise to himself to burn the book before the final battle, it was to dangerous too allow to fall in other hands.

* * *

Three people stood looking over documents in a dimly lit stone room, the first of them was Eiji Adachi, he had dark piercing eyes and a clean-shaven, baby-faced visage, his dark hair was worn casually unkempt, falling over his eyes. He looked to be the very picture of an attractive, sophisticated man in the prime of life, he wore a blue, full length military issue coat and slacks with black dress shoes. "This is how we're going to proceed" he tapped one of the documents on the table.

A tall and lean man, that had a thin chinstrap of scruffy beard and his jovially spiky hair ending in a characteristic forelock as well as the rectangular spectacles framed in front of his hazel eyes smiled and scratched his scruffy beard. "Well I have the doctors for it so it's no problem on that front, with time we should be able to either get the staff on our side or place our own people inside. You sure you don't have any second thoughts?"

Eiji didn't flinch. "I'm sure of it, we proceed with the plan."

"Well alright! Then I hope you can lay the charm on her because a lot of this depends on you getting between the bed sheets with the girl."

"You just handle your part of the plan I will handle mine."

"Alright, alright, if you need any tips on charming the lady you know where to find me."

Eiji gritted his teeth. "Get out."

The man left the room giving the third person a warm and cheeky smile.

Eiji took the documents and then threw them into the fireplace. "You don't agree with my choices Anzu?"

The last person of three was Anzu Mazaki, she had brown shoulder-length hair that was sectioned into two layers, consisting of a darker shade of brown inner layer, with the outer layer of a lighter shade. She was a woman in her early twenties with a moderately muscular and curvaceous build.

"I do not agree with your decision of helping that religious sect, our country doesn't need them, I cannot personally trust them."

"I will keep them in check, and they have their uses, for now at least." As Eiji was preparing to throw another document into the fire he stopped and took a closer look at it, the document contained a picture of his daimyo's family. The man, Masashige Kagawa, had buried his second wife not long ago and had been in a depression ever since, the man only had three daughters left after Yone drowned at sea, young Chiyuki had married into the Nagao family and been effectively cut of from the line of succession. That only left two women, Ruma with her green, well groomed hair that was always pulled back and revealed a furrowed, gloomy face, round blue eyes, set buried within their sockets that did little to betray the intelligence behind them, several moles were spread neatly around her small nose. The woman was smart, too smart for his plans, that left Enko as the only viable target, he quickly tossed the picture in the fire.

Eiji knew that what he was planning was treason but it was also the only way for his country to become great, for it to take its rightful place in the world, to make Tea a super power, but for that he and his group needed to get to power first. He was aware of his rather modest background; his great grandfather had been a farmer while his grandfather and father had both been professional soldiers for their country who only later took up farming after leaving the army, even with these facts the nobles still considered him a farmer. Eiji tightened his fist, the plan was to marry one of the daimyo's daughters to help acquire a better political and social position, and his military career would help as would his good looks and charisma. Once married he and the others would drive his new wife made then gently help to cure her and make her into either the perfect wife or remove her from the picture, Taido Kida was already laying the necessary foundation in finding and placing the right people to aid in their plan, _a ploy worthy of the theatre, faking the murder of her doctor, servants and husband. _

But there were plenty of obstacles in his way to power, he need to seduce and marry Enko, the daimyo needed to be removed from scene, get some of nobles behind him, _well a few are willing, and I already have spies in other families._ Then there was Ruma to consider, her ideas of how the country should be ruled were preposterous to many, not to him though, he liked them but he would never declare them in public like she had, her staunch beliefs and independent attitude had made her an outcast, while not know to the public it had also cut her from the line of succession, none of the nobles wanted to support her and no one with any sort of political position wanted to marry her.

The greatest threat to his plan would be Norogumi Seki, an old friend of the previous daimyo and the guardian of the daimyo's young half-sister_, it's a miracle that the old man managed to get a woman pregnant, he all but threw the country into chaos when it was announced nine years ago, at least he died with a smile on his face._ Norogumi, one of their greatest generals if not the greatest, he could all but see the man in front of him, white hair with parts hazel, short cut slightly revealed a round, anguished face. Wide blue eyes, set tightly within their sockets, smooth skin that complimented his cheekbones and left a fascinating memory of his luck in battles. A sword slash left a mark stretching from the top of the left cheek, first running towards thin lips and ending under her right eye from a battle fought in defense of their country. There was something enticing about the man, perhaps it was a feeling of arrogance or perhaps it's simply a feeling of comfort. But nonetheless, people tended to stand straight around the man and thank him for his service, some hoped that he would one day be their leader. The man still had an incredible physique for his age, _fifty-five years and still going strong, _he had been recruited as a young boy by the previous daimyo and spent much of his life in the army, even with his strict attitude the nobles liked him. _He will be my greatest challenge to overcome. _

Once in power was when the second part of the plan began, to expand the country and begin to conquer other lands, the Land of Noddles, the Land of Waves would be a start. Benisu Island was a trade island between his country and the Lands of Wind and Fire, while no side had control over it, it was an important trade point and any side trying to gain control of it would have to fight with the other two. Nagi Island and O'uzu would fall with enough pressure, his main three targets were the part of the Land of Fire near his country; the second target would be the Land of Sea, the other great trade country that also traded with the countries across the ocean; the last target would be parts of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers to help feed his people and sustain future conquests.

Tea country's fleet was already amongst the best, but its army was another matter, while the army had fought others and come out on top it couldn't yet mach the other larger countries, so he and his people had already begun to help improve it, luckily for him other likeminded people existed and had been increasing the army. The problem was that they still didn't have any shinobi of their own, the previous daimyos were against the creation of a ninja village in their country, _their reasons were understandable for the most part_. The first kages had divided the known world after the creation of the ninja villages and held considerable power in their countries, while starting a ninja village had its own dangers it also had plenty of advantages.

Sadly he would need ninjas for his plans, mercenaries and missing nin could easily switch sides but as long as the money was good they would stay loyal for the most part. He would need people loyal to his country, men and women who wouldn't be afraid to give their lives for it. Slowly he would aid in creating a ninja corps in his country to help in the future wars, with the situation in Kiri slowly deteriorating there was potential to recruit shinobi from there, other missing nins would also be approached with caution. The other part would be to search for clans to swear fealty to his country, _surprisingly it looks like a clan from Konoha of places may yet join my country, and they do have such potential_. The new religious sect that he had aided in establishing themselves in the country was his ace in the hole, most people didn't know was that they also had their own special abilities similar to that of shinobi and would aid him in his ambitions.

He tossed more documents in the fire, before throwing the last two documents he looked at them and gritted his teeth, his country still had various government officials at assorted levels conspiring with pirates while at the same time they had nobles trying to ruin other nobles in the name of politics and screwing over their subjects out of greed. He was happy that at least the situation in the Land of Fire was similar, after meeting Kenijirou he was convinced that the man was insane and would lead the country to ruin, mostly likely a civil war was just around the corner and that would be the perfect time to strike at them, he would gain land from them while slowly supplying the warring sides with gold to prolong the conflict.

* * *

A small six year old girl lay on her futon dressed in a white kimono; her skin was slightly red and sore all over, as she had been scrubbed viciously for her to be properly cleansed after her latest deed. The girl rose and climbed onto a chair near the window of her room overlooking the gardens of her home; she looked out and could see the sun setting in the distance, the gentle golden glow over the horizon signaled the night's rapid approach. She loved the autumn, when the leaves were tinted in yellow and burning red; together with the sun they formed a golden ocean with red patches whose beauty was the winds blew the leaves always looked to be dancing with each other, brown, red and gold all seemed drawn together for a dance, uncaring of their stature, before just as quickly it began it soon ended and they returned to their places. Throwing the leaves that had fallen on the ground made it look like it was raining with colors for her.

The girl looked at her own reflection in the window gently touching her own face, she was quite pretty, or so people had told her, a sharp inverted triangle face, thin lips, long thin eyebrows, onyx black hair that reached her lower back and two bangs that framed the sides of her face, pale white skin, _a sign of my higher blood, of purity_, and spring green eyes, _the best of both my parents_.

A knock drew her attention towards the door. "Enter"

A tall elderly woman with visible wrinkles on her face opened the door, she was carrying a white cup, the woman bowed slightly. "Good evening lady Kaguya" The woman greeted.

Kaguya smiled. "Good evening Urano-san" Urano Nishida had been with her family long before her birth and had been a constant in her own life.

Urano gently placed the cup on the night stand before bowing again and leaving, it didn't escape Kaguya's notice that the woman was wearing white gloves.

Kaguya made her way towards her night stand, the cup was porcelain and had designs of white pigeons sitting on the branches of a blooming sakura tree, she gently picked up the cup and returned to the chair by the window taking care not to spill the drink. She drank a bit of the warm milk as she let her gaze wander outside again, her thoughts were preoccupied with other matters.

All the people around her treated her more like a divinity then anything else, she was barely allowed to leave her home, the palace felt more like a prison to her, the only few times she left her home was for small occasions, to visit family members or friends of her parents. Walking threw the large gardens around her home were one of the greatest joys of her life.

She knew her parents were of some importance, just how much she didn't know, she had over heard some of her parents friends talking about marriages for her, she wasn't even sure what it meant. Kaguya sighed and placed the cup near the window.

Everybody treated her so differently; there were so many rules she had to follow so many things she wasn't allowed to do. She wasn't allowed to touch the ground with her bare feet anymore, she wasn't allowed to play with some of the other children she had seen around the house as they were below her, and they would dirty her with their unwashed hands. She longed to play in the dirt and mud, the run threw the gardens barefoot, the play with the other children she would see on the streets, she longed for freedom.

Kaguya took the cup and made her way towards the night stand placing it upon there then quickly changed into her sleep atire, the silk sheets had a silky feeling that was cool to the touch and felt smooth from the moment she lay down upon them, her pillows had only feathers from gooses, no chicken feathers, those were for commoners. Kaguya smiled, she had at least one secret, she had managed to become friends with a young stable boy, his father tended the horses and was teaching him as well to one day do the same. They had played in secret before and had done the same today, Kazutoshi had quickly fled when they heard one of her caretakers approach, sadly she had been found in the stables amongst the hay and dust, the mocking laughter of her relatives and the cleansing bath she received had all been worth it, just those brief moments of fun made the rest seem so much brighter, she hoped she could see Kazutoshi again soon.

* * *

Goro Inogashira sighed as he looked over the building plans scattered on the table again, it was madness what he was helping to build, he knew such as thing should never exist. He shook his head as he ran his finger threw his long white beard, the amounts of money however kept his mouth shut and opinions to himself. Goro knew that he would never sleep another peaceful night in his life knowing what was being built here, what was being done in this place of madness, his only consolation was that his family would be taken care of because of his sacrifice, once this project was done he would take his family and leave for the country, Goro would send them away sooner if his client showed more signs of madness, he would travel as far away as he could for he knew that if his employer ever became daimyo the country would fall apart.

The place of decadence that had been created here was bad enough making even some of the more unhinged individuals blush and stammer, but the plans for the expansion of the place sent chills down his spine. Slave pens were being built underneath and existing castle, dark cells to hold the hold the slaves with a small channel running threw it where the guards would pour water and food down the channel and the slaves would scoop at them with their hands as it passed, being force to daub it into their mouths like pigs. In his dreams, he could see the people elbowing each other, pushing the weaker ones out of the way.

Already he had heard talk of slave auctions, he had to stop himself from throwing up, there was talk of buying young children, of inspecting slaves like common horses. Goro had heard whispers of how his client wanted to send troops to fetch young good looking children and other people for the place. From what he had heard there was a man who was helping to smuggle drugs in the country from the Land of Sea, and anything else that was needed, and with the man's service to his client a protection from Konona shinobi came with it as well. The drugs would be both consumed by the future clients and used on the slave to help break them, a few were said to put people to sleep and would be used to capture future slaves.

Goro washed his face with cold water, slapping himself a few times, his hands were trembling but he pushed threw it calmed himself down before returning to look at the plans again, his client wanted to create a great pleasure district, to let the nobles of the region indulge in whatever perverse desire they had, the one that existed was far too small and tame for the man's taste. Friezes and statues would be placed threw out the district depicting the most lewd and vile acts, while others would decorate the fronts of every establishment. His client insisted that the place have iron cages hung above the doors of the establishments with which were slaves either flagellated one another or performed acts of coitus that he desired.

His client's dream was that strolling from one house to the other house would be the flower of high society, all dressed as they saw fit, the man dreamed of naked silver-masked courtesans would run around the place. Already there were covered palanquins in the district carried by slaves that helped transport those who wished to keep their identities secret.

Goro knew he had done the right thing when he had sent his family to one of the green zones of the country, the troops would travel there to fetch slaves they wouldn't dare such a thing, not yet anyway. He knew he needed to keep his daughter as well hidden as he could before he left the country; he would take his family to the Land of Iron that would be the only safe place for his family. _Why must the daimyo's have such an insane son, worse one whose chances of getting the throne are slowly rising with the passage of time? _

* * *

A short man with a square face, long light brow hair, with small eyebrows that looked to have been each shaved at a half point and brown business suit, with a beige shirt and a purple tie looked threw the documents on his desk with one hand, while sipping wine with the other, the smell of cigars permeated the air in the small room.

_Ah, life is good, and with me helping one of the fire daimyo's sons it's only going to get better. _

His shipping company's profits had soured once again this year, almost no one knew of the nature of his cargo and those who did kept their mouths shut, whether it was thanks to a bribe or the threat of sword threw the gut.

The man scowled. _Look's like the rebels are acting up again in the Land of Sea, the drug shipments better not take a blow if the know what's good for them_. He rubbed his chin. _If the catch them I can get a good price for the lot, slave's are still an expensive merchandise, and lucky for me slavery is making a comeback. _

The man got up from his chair and walked to the window removing the curtains and opening the window. The view of the docks was splendid from his office, he could see countless ships there loading and unloading cargo, carriages moved about the place and seagulls flew over everything. Every since he was a small boy growing up on a mud infested pig farm on a small hill overlooking a harbor he had liked looking at the ships. For him they all looked like money, everything about the docks reeked of money to him. He had sworn to climb his way of the mud hole he had been born in, the youngest of seven brothers, the smallest of them all, the so called runt of the litter, the one no one believed capable doing anything much less of what he talked about. _The old man and the others laughed when I couldn't push the plow right, how my arms were to skinny to work on the farm, how I was weak.._

He removed a large cigar from his breast pocket smelling it before lighting it. _Well I showed them all._ He loved money from a young age, he knew it was the key to escaping the pig farm, his father had been an idiot, the memories of the long hours of work put in and then selling everything for a few coins to those fat merchants who would barter to the last nickle had plagued his dreams. After seeing that scene he knew there was a better way to make a living, and easier way, he become obsessed with making deals to get the most money out of everything.

It had been a long a climb up the ladder to get to where he was with it's own perils, he had run away from home when a merchant had offered to hire him as his servant boy after he had managed to swindle the man out of a few coins down by the docks. A smile crossed the man's face when he remembered his teacher, the man had taught him much in their time together. How to barter like a true merchant, how to negotiate with pirates, how to find the right kind of ship captain that was willing to smuggle a little something extra for the right price, the kind of grease need to get the wheals going, some wanted a bit of money, others wanted something else, a paid trip to a whore house, some wine, a few drugs, a small child here and there.

He chuckled the look on his teacher's face when he had managed to buy his men and turn them against the man had been priceless, he had taken his teacher's business in one swoop and sent the old man down to the bottom of the ocean with some nice new shoes. His dear old teacher had bleed like a pig when the men stabbed him and he bleed like so many wounds, it reminded him of a wild boar he along with his father and brother had killed when young, his old teacher ended up in the ocean with rocks tied to his feet at the end.

_And then I was the one putting the screws on my old man, ah seeing the looks on my family's faces when I the saw me at the docks with wearing a suit is something I'll never forget. The pleasure of fucking the wives of my dear brothers while they slaved away at work was just such a nice touch, it sadly ruined a few marriages when they found out, but it was no skin of my back. The idiots thought they could kill me after that, good old Hachiro always liked the pigs, well he didn't seem to like them that much when I feed him to them. That dumb as a rock Eishi thought he could get past my men and beat me up like when he were children, _he laughed_, oh poor stupid bastard, I had my men work on him, beating the crap out the big lump for a week before I allowed him to die. And snickering Shunji who always had a joke to make whenever I got scowled, I managed to get a goo price when I sold him into slavery ,after cutting out his tongue of course._

As much as he liked how life was going for him he wanted more, the taxes in the Land of Tea were getting harder to evade, the Land of Noddles was to poor for his taste and even with his friends in fire country he couldn't do much there, no what he needed was a place of his own. The man walked towards a map of the Elemental Nations looking it over as he had done before, there were quite a few options before him. _Benisu Island is out of the question, as great as that place is with the trade and deals happening there. The place has far to many factions that are well entrenched, to drive them out is impossible with making wasting everything I have,_ his eyes shifted across the map to the destroyed Land of Blaze_, it's ripe for the taking but needs to much money poured into it, even back when people were there it didn't have a lot of trade going on._ The man's eyes moved across the map again, _Nagi Island and O'uzu Island both looked like good places, they were far away from the mainland with some trade happening there, but sadly their sour relationships with the Land of Tea meant that trade between the two was all but inexistent and with Tea being a trade power that wouldn't do_.

He had considered at one point taking one of the islands of the Land of Sea, but realized how stupid that would have been, with all the business and strife going on there. More and more it looked like the last place, the Land of Waves would be his choice, it had ports, was removed from the mainland, even if not by much, it was close to the Land of Fire and his friends in the country could help turn a blind eye to what he would do in Wave. He need to start strangling trade there to soften up the place for the eventual take over, with how things were going with the daimyo's son maybe he could even get some leaf nin to help out, it would make it easier to smuggle the drugs and slave into fire country. _Yes, this may just be the right choice after all; I'll still keep on eye on Benisu Island and see if a last ditch effort can't be made there_. He chuckled again. _Gato Kenpachi, daimyo of the Land of Waves just rolls of the tongue._

* * *

Review away

Constructive criticism or pointing out possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

Check out the poll on my page and the forum where the other polls are.

* * *

Chapter 5 – last edit on 4.04.2014 posted on 4 04 2014. Next chapter, next month.

A bit of a shorter chapter this time with just 10038 words, the chapter had a lot more parts with Naruto and one with his Anbu guard but the parts with Naruto got too big and were moved to the next chapter that will focus on Naruto almost exclusively. I wrote a scene with Naruto's Anbu guard since chapter 3 and still haven't gotten around to placing it in a chapter.

It always bugged me how in Naruto/Fairy Tail crossovers very few people bring this point up. If Naruto produces chakra from within his body and the mages have magic because they absorbed it from the atmosphere, those two things should clash like hell and end up messing him up on the inside, don't get me started on any potential children. I still like those crossovers; they just require a bit more suspension of disbelief then normal.

Not sure why ROOT agents had their midriff exposed like that, it seemed stupid, so that got cut here. Apparently ROOT members wore the standard cloak and mask of the Konohagakure ANBU, and yet they didn't don't have an actual standardized uniform like the others. I'm asking why not? It doesn't seem to make that much sense to me, you tell them to kill their emotions, yet allow them to customize their armor and give them masks similar to the regular Anbu, which if the two sides meet would know that the other is a fake.

Can any one tell me that Danzo wouldn't think of something like what I wrote, it would keep Konoha's coffers nice and full and its shinobi employed, peace time sounds great but for the army that means a lot of less work, and considering that Konoha, from what we know, lives off missions (it isn't mentioned whether the daimyo helps fund the place) if Danzo wanted to keep Konoha strong and employed he would need to create conflict for it, at least to a degree. Destroying a national monument sounds extreme but it could rally people to a cause and get them angry at the leadership that allowed it to happen. If the Statue of Liberty got blown up how would people react?

It got dark there at the end didn't it? The two parts after Kaguya were added recently. I decided to add a bit more to the guy's back's story seeing as how that isn't done all that often.

I highly recommend the Gotrek and Felix series.


End file.
